The Sweet Taste

I received a gift recently of choke cherry jam. I have tasted choke cherries before and there was nothing appealing about it. It was very tart with some strange after-taste. I decided I should try it anyway. I was so surprised at the flavor. It might even be one of my favorite jams. It is amazing how something so ordinary can have such extraordinary flavor. God’s word tells us to taste that the Lord is good. What in the world is that supposed to mean? When you taste something, you take in everything. If that jam didn’t have any sweetener, it would taste like much. I would have no desire to have any more. Tasting that the Lord is good indicates experiencing the depth of who he is and having that desire to know Him more... His goodness, grace, mercy, teaching, love, joy, understanding, etc., and that doesn’t even begin to describe Him. So often, when we try to explain what something tastes like, what we say may sound good to us, but doesn’t really bring out its depth. The only way to truly know is to try it. We need to take Him at His word and not try to assume our ideas are sufficient. When I cook something new, I always want my family to taste it, experience it, and determine if it taste good to them without knowing what all is in it, for we often decide, before we taste it, whether or not we will like it. We do the same thing with other things in life. We often have a picture of who we think God is and so we keep trying to squeeze Him into that image. The truth is opposite to that, for we were made in the image of God. Through sin, that image is broken, but the Spirit stirs in our heart a desire to learn more about who He is. God also has described His word or a scroll as being sweet as honey. It is filled with the good news from the beginning (in Genesis) to the end (Revelation). Each book, each chapter, each verse is filled with new information or reinforces what has already been said. The more ways that God and His desire for His people is described in the Bible, the better our understanding of who he is. We will not know the sweetness until we have tasted it for ourselves. Sin has dampened our ability to taste it. If it is not appealing to you, maybe there’s another taste in your soul that sours it. Father, I don’t just want to know You exist, but I want to grow in my knowledge of You, always hungering for Your truth. Amen