National Chocolate Cupcake Day // Matthew 5:6

By Mark Jordan

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day! How will YOU celebrate? For me, I guess I need to find me a good chocolate cupcake; moist, with thick frosting. Maybe with a cream-filled center, along with some chocolate chips or cookie pieces, too. Goodness, it isn’t even breakfast yet! Thanks to that old Bill Cosby comedy bit, we know that chocolate cake has primary breakfast ingredients, so let’s indulge, shall we?

I learned that the history of the chocolate cupcake goes all the way back to 1796 when a recipe was included in the “American Cookery” cookbook. Chocolate cupcakes since have become a worldwide phenomenon and royalty in most every dessert spread. The thing about chocolate cupcakes, though, is they aren’t terribly filling. Maybe for those lucky ones who can only have a few bites of the rich, decadent confection, but not me. In fact, the more I eat, the hungrier I seem to feel, and the more I want.

Such is the case with many items that are mostly filled with empty calories. Those kinds of food actually cause more hunger responses than calm them. We need something heavenly that fills and fulfills, don’t we?

Today’s verse from the Beatitudes in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount teaches that God’s righteousness never leaves us feeling empty. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness fulfills the soul. That’s not to say chocolate cupcakes don’t have their place, but you can’t rely on their spiritual junk food counterparts to satisfy any more than if you tried living on dessert. You need more…we all do!

So, on this National Chocolate Cupcake Day, feel free to indulge a little if you like, but don’t pass up the holy food groups that will wholly satisfy and nourish your soul. Hunger and thirst for Jesus’ righteousness, and you will be filled!