Strangely enough, the hole in the first straws was designed to be just narrow enough to keep a lemon seed from getting stuck inside it. That's because lemonade was a very popular drink when Marvin Stone made the first paper straw in 1888.
Mr. Stone enjoyed his drinks very cold, which meant that the glass was uncomfortable to hold. He had tried the only solution available for a straw at the time- a wild grass stalk, which was hollow. But these stalks made the drinks taste odd. And when they dried, they either cracked or got dusty.
Mr. Stone thought of a better way. He took a long, skinny piece of paper, wound it around a pencil, dotted the end of the paper with glue, and pulled out the pencil. He made several of these tubes, just for himself. But when other people saw Mr. Stone's straws, they wanted to try one too. Mr. Stone owned a factory, so he instructed all of his employees to roll straws. The workers made the straws out of wax-coated paper so they wouldn't get soggy when wet. Mr. Stone sold many of his simple straws. Lots of fancier straws have been tried since then. Mr. Stone himself invented a double-barreled straw - two straws stuck together so you could drink twice as much. Other inventions were a glass with a straw built in; loop-the-loop straws; and chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry - flavored straws. But the plain, simple straw has lasted longer.
If you could choose a type of straw to use right now, would you pick the double-barreled one, the loop-the-loop, or the flavored? If you could choose another straw tomorrow, you would probably want to choose a different kind. Sometimes choices can be confusing, and it's hard to decide between them. The Bible helps us with many of the choices we have to make- choices about what is right and what is wrong, what pleases God and what does not please Him. There is one choice that's very easy to make, because Jesus tells us there is only one way to get to heaven:
“This is the way to have eternal life - to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” John 17: 3
God Bless.