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A hard nut? Nothing but hard nuts?

Everyone has received a walnut. What do the nuts look like? Do you know what is inside the nut? A walnut has a hard shell and to get into the inside the shell the nut has to be cracked. That is not so easy. You all know the saying „it’s a hard nut to crack“, which means the same as, "quite difficult". Now you can all try to crack the nut.

What have you noticed? The contents are smaller than it first appeared.
What else have you noticed? The shell is either broken or split into two halves and no longer provides any protection, which is no longer necessary.

You represent the nut. Hard, robust, no-one is allowed to come too close; otherwise they will feel your coldness. You do not make easy for some people. You do not even let Jesus come close although he would like to get close to your inner self, just as you are. Jesus would like to crack your hard shell and I am quite sure, your core is lovable and quite different to how it appears.

This connection, if you think about it, shows that we all try to present ourselves with a hard shell (always as cool as possible), although the inner self looks quite different. Do you really know your best friend well? Does he know everything about you? Why is it so difficult for us to “abandon” our inner self? We are scared of being laughed at and of standing there like a weakling or being attacked. Jesus would like to crack you, he would like you to get to know him and would like you to let him in completely. Jesus wants to be close to you. You can be different next to him and with him and you will no longer need the hard, rough shell.

Is Jesus allowed to crack your shell?

Note: This devotion is suitable for rounding off a game evening with nuts, especially at advent time.