Their beautiful golden skin glistened in the sunshine as we approached the vendor’s table. It is not really mango season here, but we had hoped we could find someone selling our favorite fruit. I had never seen such large, plump, smooth-skinned fruit and worried that they would be too expensive. “Tau rai khap?” (“How much?”) Don asked.

“Baat sip baht,” (“80 baht,”) the vendor replied. Expensive, but not unreasonable for a holiday treat. Selecting three of the beauties, we added them to our market bag, paid the vendor and continued shopping.

Arriving home, we carefully laid out our prizes on an ant-proof surface to finish ripening. A few days later we selected the ripest mango to enjoy for breakfast. Don, the fruit master, slit the golden skin and sliced the mango in half. Oh no! A huge, ugly, black reticulated mass hid just below the surface of the skin. Wondering how deep this defect went, Don proceeded to perform an expert excision of the mass. Though large, it was well enough contained. The rest of the fruit appeared fine. I took a spoon and tentatively tasted the remaining fruit. Delicious!

I find this an apt parable for some of us, God’s people. We appear beautiful on the outside, glistening with God’s love and purpose for our life. But inside we retain some hidden wound marring our life and keeping us from the fullness to be had in Christ. Mentally we have forgiven others, but we still hang on to the hurt. Today let’s give that hurt to Jesus. Let Him remove it from our hearts and give us love to replace it so that our lives can be full and complete in him. How else can we share with others the fullness of His salvation?

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