It's not about a red cup...

Starbucks removed some snowflakes and other holiday symbols from their winter paper cups and suddenly they are accused of being anti-Christian....ladies and gentlemen, it's not about the cup.  Christmas is not winter figures on a paper cup.  And selecting a plain red (or as Starbucks prefers, "cranberry" colored) cup instead of the traditional snowflakes edition is not the same thing as being anti-Christian.  And having a bunch of Christians protesting Starbucks is a great example of how we ,Christians, miss the point.

If removing some holiday symbols from a red cup gets more people that do not believe Christ into the doors of Starbucks, where I am sipping on delicious, over-priced coffee, maybe my chances of witnessing to them will increase.  If this cup fiasco were an indication that people of Starbucks were anti-Christmas or anti-Christian (which I don't believe it is!), isn't that all the more reason to actually be at Starbucks?  Where did Jesus hang out?  In the church with "His" people?  No, He hung out with nonbelievers.  It isn't as much about the cup as what goes in the cup.

John 4:7-13
Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.  The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.  She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”  Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”   “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?  And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”  Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.  But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

If the women at the well showed up with a Starbucks non-snowflake, plain cranberry colored cup, I am pretty sure He would have still filled it with His living water.  Who's cup are you filling up?

Coffee, snowflakes and a red cup,

Ashley Lucille 

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