Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

It’s the one place you really want to go. It’s the place where all your most fantastical dreams come true. Even without going there, it’s the source of what small pieces of pleasure you are able to enjoy here. It’s a place shrouded in mystery and surrounded by rumour. All would love to walk in through those large gates and experience it for themselves but many have given up hope and few will finally enter.
Only five will enter, to be precise, each accompanied by one parent. But to be one of the five you must be lucky enough to find a golden ticket in your Wonka chocolate bar. As news breaks around the world as another and another golden ticket has been found, Charlie Bucket’s hope of ever going to the Wonka chocolate factory is slipping away.
Augustus Gloop is the first to find a ticket and is lucky he doesn’t eat it instead. He’s lost all appreciation for the taste of the chocolate bars he is continuously stuffing in his mouth, and has the belly to show for it. Veruca Salt throws tantrums until her spoiling father, employing his considerable wealth, gets her “her” ticket. For Violet Beauregarde the golden ticket is just another trophy to add to her impressive collection. Mike Teavee credits his own super intelligence for finding his ticket.
What hope does a boy who eats cabbage soup every night really have, when he gets only one chocolate bar each year for his birthday? Charlie has given up when he finds some money in the street. He can think of nothing he’d rather than a Wonka Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight to quell his hunger pangs. As he unwraps his chocolate bar the corner of the last golden ticket shines out at him. He can’t believe his luck!
When the great day comes the five children are shown around the wondrous chocolate factory by the intriguing Willy Wonka. It’s a truly amazing place! And they are all excited by the prospect of a grand prize. However, each of the children with Charlie in turn fall victim to their own vices and are unable to continue the tour.
When only Charlie is left the promised prize is revealed. Willy Wonka has orchestrated the golden tickets and the tour to find an heir to his chocolate factory. Charlie has passed the tests and Willy knows he can trust him to carry on his own life’s passion.
Just like Charlie we are offered a golden ticket to a place beyond our wildest dreams. In fact, the “chocolate factory” is being prepared for our arrival as we speak! But there’s more to it than just having the ticket.
The Willy Wonka chocolate factory tour has a strange similarity with the parable of the sower where each finds a [golden ticket] and receives it with joy, but without understanding its full value. (see Matthew 13). Before long something gets in the way and each child is unable to continue to the end and receive the prize. But Charlie understands something of the value of the ticket and it yields a return greater than he could possibly have imagined.
Like Charlie we are invited to be heirs of the chocolate factory. “Having been justified by his grace, we . . . become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3.7). As heirs of the whole chocolaty kingdom we can dream of new flavours, new ways (and old) for more people to enjoy the full flavours of God’s goodness. You are the cocoa of the earth!