Every morning for breakfast Richard took out a container of grape juice and a separate container of apple juice from the fridge.  He took one glass and poured it half full of grape juice then filled the rest up with apple juice.  Richard refused to start his day any other way.  But, early Christmas morning when all the stores were closed he opened the fridge to discover that Santa and his elves had drunk all of his grape and apple juice.  His stomach flip-flopped at the horror of the situation.  What would he do?  He pulled opened the refrigerator drawers and looked behind everything in the fridge, hoping to find just a small amount of both grape and apple juice.  He did not find juice, but he did find a small bunch of grapes and a few apples.  He decided a grape/apple fruit salad would have to suffice.  Visions of grape/apple juice danced through his head along with sugar plums, but he stoically made his grape/apple salad. 

Richard sat down at the breakfast nook, adjusted his napkin and took a tentative bite of his breakfast salad.  He chewed slowly trying to mix the flavors of the apple and the grape, but it just wasn’t the same as his beloved juice.  The flavors remained separate and did not blend to create the taste he was craving.

God wants us to become one with Him.  He wants to blend His life and ours together to become a whole new creation.  If we insist on not letting God press our lives into juice so we can be blended with Him, our relationship will be like the grape/apple salad.  Yes, we are hanging out together, but our lives have not become one with His.

I am in them, and You are in Me. So they are completely united. In this way the world knows that You have sent Me and that You have loved them in the same way You have loved Me.  John 17:23