Life is Just a Bowl Full of Cherries
by Dr. Marilyn S. Murphree
I didn’t want to lose it, but I had searched the house; and it was nowhere to be found. It 
was not really worth any monetary value, but it contained lot of memories and they were invaluable ones. Walter was gone and now his coffee cup was too. He had brought it home from the office where he worked for several years.
It was a unique coffee cup, tall with a comfortable handle and cherries printed on the side of it. I had never seen any other coffee cup like it, and the cherries on the side made me think about the saying, “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” That saying means, “Everything is just great” or did it? That saying turned into a song back in 1931 performed by Ethel Merman.
Are you enjoying the cherries or focusing on the pits?
I am sure you have heard the saying before, but what does it mean? One could take it to mean that life is very pleasant or it could mean just the opposite. Comedian Erma Bombeck used the phrase to ask, “If life is always a bowl of cherries, then what am I always doing in the pits?”
In reality life is not always pleasant or always the pits. This coffee cup probably served coffee to Walter on less than perfect days when he would rather be anywhere else than work, but he made it through a lot of less than perfect days as well as the best of days and the coffee cup did too. It made its way back home when his job was cut in the recession, but where in the world was that coffee cup now and why did I try so hard to find it? I guess the fact that it survived so many memories both good and bad times made it all the more valuable to me.
Found
I had pretty much given up on ever finding it when one day I was sitting in another room in the house and my eye glanced to a shelf where there were many cups of all sizes and shapes but one in particular stood out, taller than usual and had three red cherries painted on the side. “There it is!” I shouted. “After all this time. How did it get in here?”
God Knows
Life might be a bowl full of cherries meaning both good and bad, but God is aware of the various times of our lives.
Psalm 139:2 says, “Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising, thou understandeth my thoughts afar off.”
If a lone coffee cup could survive the years, we can too. How much more of value are we than something fragile like that? We may feel like we only survive the bad days when we think we are barely holding on by our fingernails. God helps us to survive the hard days that life brings to all of us. He takes us through the valley of the shadow of death, and we don’t have to fear evil because He is with us. His rod and staff comfort us, even if all we see on either side of us is the pits.
Isaiah 41:10 NIV says, ”Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed; for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Just a reminder. You’ve got it! He is with you. Now how about a cup of coffee?
If you feel that you have lost touch with God, visit our page, “How to Know God.” You can find Him. He’s waiting for you to come.
Dr. Marilyn Murphree is a retired guidance counselor and pastor. You can read a number of her sermons on Sermon Central.
