Hi friends! With so much tension and distress related to the war in Gaza, let’s keep it light today! Sometimes a humorous illustration paints a picture of truth better than a dozen well-written essays. So, let’s give it a try.

If you follow Amir Tsarfati on Telegram, you likely saw this illustration posted several days ago, but it hits the nail on the head and is worth repeating.

WHEN A FLY FALLS INTO A CUP OF COFFEE...

The Italian throws the cup, breaks it, and walks away in a fit of rage.

The German carefully washes the cup, sterilizes it and makes a new cup of coffee.

The Frenchman takes out the fly and drinks the coffee.

The Chinese eats the fly and throws away the coffee.

The Russian drinks the coffee with the fly, since it was extra with no charge.

The Israeli sells the coffee to the Frenchman, sells the fly to the Chinese, sells the cup to the Italian, drinks a cup of tea and uses the extra money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.

The Palestinian blames the Israeli for the fly falling into his coffee, protests the act of aggression to the UN, takes a loan from the European Union to buy a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and blows up the coffee house where the Italian, the Frenchman, the Chinese, the German and the Russian are all trying to explain to the Israeli that he should give away his cup of coffee to the Palestinian so there will be peace.

Geopolitically, there is lots to unpack there! But let’s not linger on geopolitics.

Rather, I hope it brought a chuckle to you as it did to me. Beyond the chuckle, though, there is enough truthful symbolism to make us stop and take stock of how the world has unraveled spiritually as we have sat silently in our church pews.

No one wants a fly in their coffee, but nevertheless, life has its share of unwanted problems. Do we get angry and do irrational things? Do we worsen the problem by doing something stupid? Do we blame someone else for our problems? Do we play the victim? Or do we assess the difficulty and determine how to make things better?

Currently, Hamas has thrown a gigantic fly into the coffee. We have seen anger and irrationality (anti-Semitism). Militants (terrorists) are doing stupid things that put innocent people in danger. Those playing the blame game are pointing fingers at Israel for being “oppressive,” and “victims” who shake their fist at God are coalescing into one big happy family of godless relativism. (One example: “Queers for Palestine.” Radical Palestinians generously provide free flying lessons from high-rise buildings to lesbians and gays! Yet both sides clamor to wear the “victim” tag.)

It takes perseverance and steadfastness to remedy life’s flies in the coffee. Israel is far from perfect, but they are fighting for their very existence. You might think the fly is only in Israel’s coffee cup, but you must know that, spiritually, Israel’s “cup” (Judaism) is the same one we drink from as believers and followers of Jesus. No, we are not Jewish, but our Christian faith is deeply rooted in Judaism. The “fly” is an attack on Israel’s God and ours!

Thus, it is time to rise up, take a stand for Israel, and be about our Father’s business. Doing the right and righteous thing is difficult. Standing for Biblical values will put you at odds with the world. What do you do when the fly lands in your coffee? Commit to seek God’s Word and do the right thing! Commit to solutions, regardless of difficulty, rather than anger, stupidity, blame or victimhood!

No matter how many flies land in my coffee, I’m standing with Israel! How about you?