This is Buy-a-Doughnut Day.

Ah, doughnuts—those sticky, sweet, tasty treats. What’s your favorite—glazed? chocolate? sprinkled?

You may have wondered who invented the donut. According to one story, in 1847 a New England sea captain, Hanson Gregory, punched holes in dough because his mother’s doughnuts were not cooked in the center. Whether or not that’s true, the hole means that the baker uses fewer ingredients in each donut, and they are easy to stack on a stick (or a finger).

Some people say that doughnuts aren’t good for us because they’re fattening. But they sure can’t say that about the hole—it has zero calories.

In many ways doughnuts are like life apart from God—appealing and tasty on the outside, but empty in the middle. Solomon wrote about the emptiness of life in Ecclesiastes. Look at today’s verse where he says that life is meaningless.

Some people seem to spend their lives trying to live on doughnut holes. Solomon was that way for much of his life. He tasted it all: money, power, possessions, fun, and romance. We’ve already discussed Solomon several times in this book. But with every bite of life, Solomon wanted more. And when he got to the center, it was empty!

A better approach would be to see life as a nutritious meal; you know, one with the necessary fruits and vegetables to help you grow strong. Add meat, bread, and other essential foods, and you’ll do well. Then you can have the doughnut for dessert.

Real life begins with God in the center. Leave him out, and existence is as empty as a doughnut hole.

“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “utterly meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

To Do

Get a couple of doughnuts and challenge a sibling or a parent to an eating contest. Each person should put the doughnut on a finger and then eat as much as possible while keeping a circle of dough around the finger. Then you can explain how donuts are a lot like life.

Also on this day

This is Haunted Refrigerator Day. (Leftovers, anyone?)

1735—John Adams, the second president of the United States, was born.

1990—Tunnelers met under the English Channel and connected England to France.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.