When Life Gives You Lemons and All That

There are times in our lives when we are tired of lemons.  

We are so tired of lemons that we are also tired of their cousins, limes. We might also be tired of things that are yellow.

“When life gives you lemons …”

We reach the point at times when platitudes, even well-meaning ones, leave us wanting to throw the lemons back at someone rather than wanting to make lemonade.

In some seasons we have had our fill of lemons, and sometimes, we just need someone to say,

“Gosh, lemons are sour.”

It’s a good thing,

God’s restoration is a restoration of promise, not of platitude.

The Israelites knew some lemons. They felt the sour sting of lemons for years and years and years. God saves the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He promises salvation and He brings it. We see this great salvation in Exodus 14. In Exodus 15, Moses and all the people sing this epic song of God’s promises delivered. But by the end of the chapter, the Israelites feel like it’s back to lemons. They just want some water, but three long, wilderness-choking days go by and there’s none to be found … then what is found is bitter, undrinkable.

So … thirsty …

Their solution: just start chucking some lemons at Moses.

Read the account of bitter water in Exodus 15:22-27 in the Old Testament of the Bible.

When we give the Israelites the benefit of the doubt, or put the best construction on their situation, I think we can empathize. We have all been there – thirsty, wanting more … tired of those gosh darn lemons. You and I want the Israelites to find their way out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land, not just because we’re rooting for the home team, but because that means it’s possible for us too. We are weak, wounded, messy people. We want to know the promise is for us too.

And it is. We have a problem though of constantly making do with platitudes when we could have the promise.

The Israelites wanted Moses to solve it. They turned to Moses to refresh them, to make lemonade out of this horribly bitter water. Rather than seeking restoration from God, they sought solutions from man, and that will only ever look like lemons, maybe a little sugar, but still no living water to make anything work.

In the end,

Restoration = turning and remembering God was there all along.

That’s the promise over the platitude. That’s the solution. God calls Himself Healer in Exodus 15:26 and then He delivers. Not one drink of water, but 12 springs and 70 palm trees. God’s restoration is always, always there, but it’s so easy to miss it for all the lemons. God remembers us. He does not forget us. That’s a promise you can count on.

He remembers his covenant forever,
    the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations…Psalm 105:8

Sometimes we just need help remembering it.

What if someone turned us to God when life handed us lemons? What if someone said,

“Gosh, lemons are sour. I’m so sorry you are stuck with these lemons. It will be really crazy to see what God is going to do with all of that. And I’ll be with you. I’ll watch Him work alongside you.”

Promises not platitudes, please. Life lemons, sour as they are, made sweet and fresh and beautiful in His time, in His hands.

Remembering Him, remembering His restoration, together, one really hard-to-swallow lemon at a time.