I’m about to introduce a controversial question. It’s one with the power to divide on a level the likes of political parties and pineapple on pizza.

You ready?

Should the pumpkin spice latte, PSL for short, be released before Labor Day?

Let the debate rage!

Go ahead.

Come together and take your stand.

Form groups. One side for. One side against.

Band and bond together. Pro versus Con.

Why do we do that? Not pick sides necessarily, but why do we feel the need to congregate in groups? To find others who validate our stance and create camps? I think it is because intuitively we know that there is strength in numbers. There is power in bonding together.

Elements are pros at this. The entire Periodic Table of the Elements is impressive yes, but perhaps even more impressive is all the molecules and compounds they can create together.

Take beta carotene for example.

Comprised of only carbon and hydrogen, it’s what gives pumpkins their bright orange color. Chemically it looks like a long chain of carbon and hydrogen bonded and double bonded together. Beta carotene is a precursor to Vitamin A which our bodies need. Vitamin A helps provide healthy vision and promotes cell growth. It’s also a powerful antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage.

None of this would happen without bonding. Carbon on its own can’t do all that. Neither can Hydrogen. Only when 40 carbons and 56 hydrogens come together in this specific arrangement do we get those benefits.

We as people are a lot like elements in the Periodic Table. We each individually have our own qualities and gifts, but it’s when we bond together that the real magic happens.

But it’s hard for us to bond on our own. It doesn’t just happen. In order for elements to bond, a chemical reaction/exchange of electrons takes place. It’s no different for us.

“The cross makes a way for the One who is everything that you’re not to become for you and in you everything that you need.”

Paul David Tripp from “New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional”

In other words, Christ is the superbond that holds it all together.

“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

1 Cor. 1:30

We can’t make it on our own. But there’s good news with Jesus.

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Colossians 1:17-20

Bonded first together with Christ. And then bonded together with brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Now that’s a strong bond.

Oh, and in case you were wondering… I’m pro PSL. If offered, I’d take one any day of the year!