The Sweetest Place on Earth

Saturday, we began the long journey home. After a couple of hours driving, we stopped in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of the Hershey chocolate company, where the streets are lined with Kisses shaped street lamps, and you enter and exit down Chocolate Drive. We knew we didn’t have time for all the attractions – the theme park, 3-D movie, trolley ride, or zoo – but we took the tour to learn how the candy was made…from bean to distribution. I had already read that Mr. Hershey built the town around the factory, to accommodate his factory workers. The Hershey Company has done so well over the years, not just because of how good the product is, but because of how well the company treats it’s employees. The tour was fascinating, informative, and interesting. What stood out in my mind was that the cocoa beans that are grown and gathered from different countries, like Uganda and Indonesia, each have a unique flavor. Hershey combines these beans in just the right amounts (along with milk and sugar) to create the world famous Hershey taste. The ingredients are then dried, roasted, beaten, crushed, milled, flattened, rolled, heated, stirred, and put through other sundry processes to produce the finished product that we have come to know and love.

Ever feel like a cocoa bean? Have you been through the mill, fire, pressure and ringer? Sometimes we feel like God has stripped us of all our strengths and uniqueness until there is none of US left. God has promised that He will not allow us to endure more than we can bear, and that He is always there to provide an escape. 1 Corinthians 10:13. So when you face struggles, trials, temptations, and you feel like you are being crushed and burned by the burdens you face, just sit back and let God mix the ingredients of your character and take control of the processessing so that HIS finished product can be as sweet and sumptuous as Hershey’s chocolate.