One Pineapple or the Whole Basket

Part of going shopping here in Vanuatu includes going to market. You never know what you’ll find there. Different villages send their produce to market at different times, and most villages have a “specialty,” one crop that nearly everyone produces. One time when I went to market, nearly every vendor was selling mangoes. Another time, there must have been twenty people selling oranges (which, ironically, here are green). One item that isn’t too common, but you can usually find a few of is pineapple. Now, pineapples in America are quite nice, but are nothing compared to the pineapples here. They are incredibly sweet and delicious. However, they do come with quite a price tag. A small one often is $2 with larger ones ranging all the way up to $5. Recently when I was at market, I walked all the way through looking for pineapples. I needed a small one because once you cut them open they go bad in a day and a half, and I can only eat so much. I found some nice small ones in a small basket, and asked the lady how much they were. She told me 300 vatu ($3.00). That’s a bit expensive for small pineapples, but I really wanted one, so I paid the lady the 300vt and took a pineapple. I proceeded to buy the rest of what I needed and went to get in the car. I heard a knocking on the window and looked up. There was the lady that had sold me the pineapple holding the basket with six more pineapples in it. She told me that I had paid for the basket without taking it [crazy white lady]. I, confused, took the basket and thanked her.

Then I realized, 300vt was not the price of one pineapple, it was the price of the whole basket. The price for the whole basket had been paid, but I, in my ignorance, had only taken advantage of a small bit of what had been purchased. How often do we do the same. The price for salvation has been paid, but often we only take advantage of a small part of what has been purchased. Now, I’m not talking about being “partly saved,” but not taking full advantage of what we’ve been given. Salvation has so much more to it than just going to heaven. It is freedom from the power of sin. It allows for the filling of the Holy Spirit. It provides an opportunity to live an abundant life. How many times do we, in our ignorance, take one pineapple, not realizing Christ paid for the whole basket?