Thanks for Chocolate

Dear God, the Omniscient One–

Thank you!
You were wise enough and imaginative enough to create chocolate.
Or, at least, you created the cocoa bean, and You inspired some Latino to invent chocolate.

It doesn’t matter.
Chocolate was perhaps the greatest invention of all time.
Thank you for its rich flavor and bitter-sweetness.
Thank you for its energizing and comforting qualities.
Thank you for its versatility: no matter what you bake, it will taste better with chocolate.
How remarkable that one square of dark chocolate or one sip of hot, foamy milk chocolate can reach down into the sad and tired places of my soul and stir up warmth and vitality!
You must want me to eat and drink it because one bite or one sip is never enough.

I must have more.
Perhaps this is a cautionary tale–a shot across the bow–a warning against a food addiction.

Whatever.
I just know that I love chocolate.
And for that reason, and many other more important reasons,
I love You.
(And now, I have finished my cup of hot chocolate, but I must have some more.)
Are you giving me a picture of how I should crave You?
I don’t know.
It’s hard to make any spiritual applications when I have chocolate on my brain.

Amen.

images by Mick Lissone,  and MALIZ ONG