Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Cracker Jack Surprises

by Pastor William Jenkins

April 7, 2006

Mrs. Danheim was a wonderful older lady we knew in deep East Texas. She spoke to a group once about Cracker Jack prizes. As a child Cracker Jacks were her favorite snack food because she liked being surprised by the prize inside. She had heard about a nine-year-old girl whose father encouraged her to sue the makers of Cracker Jack because she bought a box of their product that did not have the anticipated surprise inside. The suit was settled when the company offered the little girl a free box of Cracker Jack with the guarantee of a prize inside. They also threw in some peanut mix for good measure.

Mrs. Danheim reported that the little girl was happy for the moment but that she would need to learn at some point that not all the boxes we get in life have prizes inside. She reminded us that we are not promised a prize in every box. As a matter of fact some of our Cracker Jack boxes in life will contain trouble and disappointments. She asked us, “Why can’t the prizeless occasions in life be a process of strengthening our character, purifying our nature and growing our soul. The prizeless occasions separate the wheat from the chaff, the impurities from the gold.”

Mrs. Danheim was a wise woman. For every life-box without a prize there are many more with one; but for some reason we obsess over the one without. We should not become guilty of looking for scapegoats for every prizeless circumstance. The mature person approaches life with a calm countenance and a balanced perspective. They withstand the empty Cracker Jack boxes without blaming God or anyone else; they accept the prizeless boxes as merely mundane and temporal circumstances; they loose no time in the valley of despair and self-pity; they continue on their way, anticipating the box with the prize; they survive, grow and eventually triumph.

All of us who knew Mrs. Danheim considered her faith to be as pure wheat and refined gold. She’s not around anymore, but as we approach Easter Sunday, I believe that when she opened her last Cracker Jack box, she found the most wonderful of all prizes.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org