Yum!
I mean: YUM!
I cannot wait until Easter season comes! When it does I hoard up on these malted milk eggs. I buy them by the bulk. I fill my barns... only to empty them soon in order to fill my tummy.... and then hate that I ate them after they're gone.
BUT... in the meantime, when a bag of these things have been sitting in the heat of my car where I've left them all afternoon...............OH! Oh my! JUST RIGHT! They melt in your mouth and they're wonderful!
It's a good thing they're seasonal. I'd be round (very round!) and very egg-shaped if they weren't!
And it's not only me. My whole family (mom! sisters! and kids!) love them! My liking for them is so strong that it's sometimes hard for me to share. But I do! Because I know they like them just as much as I do.... and it's always more fun to salivate and savor them together!
Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of: Mmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!
My preacher emailed me just recently. He told me that he was working on a message entitled: Taste and See that the LORD is Good and requested any thoughts or scriptures or analogies or illustrations that I might give him to help him in his preparation.
Mmmm.... taste and see?
Well, every since he asked me, this is what my mind keeps pondering....
The verse in Psalm 34:8 ("Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.") is challenging the afflicted, the one in trouble, the desperate, the one that is lacking, the one that needs help, the one that needs to find refuge... to look to the Savior, to cry out to Him, to run to Him... to taste and to see that He (the Lord) is good and that He truly is the refuge and help of all those that cry out to Him.
Fascinatingly enough, when we need help for whatever it is, when we're afflicted, when we're in trouble, when we're in want, or we're afraid, we're already seeking inside and out.. seeking for our refuge and help for where we'll find our comfort and deliverance.
When we're tempted (as was Eve in the garden), we're curious to the taste of the fruit that's forbidden. Can it give us the thing that we're seeking and hoping for? Even this, too (the forbidden), we're able to 'taste and see'... and Eve sees that it doesn't produce what it's promised.
When we're hurting or saddened in sorrow, we're often tempted to taste a drink, a drug, a snort, a puff, or even sleep... seeking our refuge in the numbing of ourselves. But we wake up... and the pain is still with us.
We'll taste food in unhealthy portions, eating way more than our need, hoping that it'll fill the something empty inside.... but instead, after we've gorged ourselves we're left ashamed, embarrassed, hating our bodies.
We'll try buying things, or clothes, or travel to different places... tasting and seeing if this satisfies our want. Could this be the refuge we seek for the absence of the thing that we're lacking and so longing and looking for?
Or, we'll seek revenge, or retaliation, madness toward another in hopes to get back (in hopes to feel better) at the one that's offended or hurt us... yet it only fills us with more fury and anger, more bitterness to defeat, a more horrible feeling.
Should our enemies be after us (as was prior to this psalm with David), where do we run to to calm our fear? Who or what do we look to in hopes to deliver us from the fury of our foe?
We're tasters. We're constantly tasting / trying / experimenting - seeking to know what works, what fills, what helps, what heals.
Where do you take refuge? What do you taste to see if it helps, if it's 'good,' if it protects, if it gives you the whatever that you're needing?
- Eve tasted of the forbidden fruit. At times some us do too. Actually, all of us have at one time or another. What was the forbidden that you bit into? And did it do for you what you had hoped it would do?
- Cain sought refuge in murder, he thought he could abade his anger by ridding the world of the man that fueled it. It didn't work. The fury wasn't inside Able, it was inside of Cain... and so his anger stayed with him, with the death of Able, it didn't kill it.
- Some try to seek refuge in a cigarrette, a drink, a bar, a movie, tv, revenge (Esau), food, shopping, another man, a woman, abuse, reading, sports, activities. But is there true refuge in where you run?
Until you 'taste and see' the refuge of our Lord, you'll never taste and SEE the goodness of His refuge. The comfort there. The safeness of it. The healing despite what's happened. The wonder regardless of your circumstance. The peace despite the storm. The calmness despite the wind's blow and the thunder's roar. The hope despite the despair. The good despite the evil. The healing despite the illness.The joy despite the mourning.
The list can go on. But only God is a refuge, and a refuge that's good!
"Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."...... Blessed [happy] is the man that trusteth in Him, that seeks refuge in Him, that flees to Him for protection, that puts his trust in God, that confides or hopes in Him, that runs beneath the shadow of His swings (Ps 57:2; 61:5).
Deut 33:29, “Happy are thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of excellency!...”
I apologized my preacher for not being able to set aside the time that my brain takes to do a better job with this. But I hope that at least something I said could inspire a better thought inside him. May God show him what He wants him to say, and open the ears of those there sitting to listen!
And (should you be interested).... for a funnier example of a negative 'tasting'... you're welcome to click and go here: Yucky Things That Stick.
P.S. Dare you think this is all? More thoughts to come regarding all this tomorrow. :)
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