Wonky Veg

When you walk down the vegetable aisles of most UK supermarkets, you will increasingly find options to purchase bags of ‘wonky’ veg! Be it mushrooms, carrots, or peppers, you can buy what would have previously been discarded now rebranded as ‘wonky’. Bags of peppers include tiny versions alongside enormous ones. You lose the uniformity that we have grown accustomed to - where all carrots were made in the same mould - and instead encounter the kind of variety you would expect to find if you grew your own carrots.

How totally refreshing! I not only love the reduced cost of wonky veg, but I also love the fact that it better resembles reality. I’m also struck by the way they are labelled. Really, the wonky veg should be called ‘Normal Veg’ and what we think of as normal veg should be called ‘Moulded Veg’.

The tragedy, of course, is that, as individuals, we often cave in under the pressure from the world to conform to its standards. Whether that is how we look or sound, what we say, or what our opinions are, or what we wear, or watch on TV, we can feel as if we’re a bit wonky if we don’t look like everyone else. But God made us unique, and He didn’t use a mould. He designed us from scratch and loves our differences in personality and form.

The word ‘wonky’ actually means crooked, off-centre, or askew. So, you could say that we are most wonky when we are trying to squeeze who we are into anything other than whom God made us to be. In fact, the journey of a Christian is that we were saved by Jesus in our state of being wonky, but that He then sets about ‘de-wonkifying’ us. Or, using slightly more biblical wording, He is transforming us into the image of Jesus.

So, the next time you see wonky veg in the supermarket, you can thank God for your uniqueness, and you can invite Him to continue His beautiful work of restoring you.