O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8
It seems like all my life I have had this love affair with food. There has been a problem though, rapid weight gain and keeping the weight is in my DNA. It is as if my body is afraid of loosing weight; that somehow if I loose weight I will loose life. I have a very slow metabolic rate. A slow metabolic rate is great in that I will probably live to 100 but the down side is that it is a constant source of concern since my body isn’t always pleasing to my eyes.
I have this love affair with food; so it is no wonder that I take great delight in the psalmists who also love the sensation of taste. Their love affair with God is organic, life-giving and life-sustaining. Their ‘tasting’ does not require sight, or hearing or the sense of touch or smell. Their love affair with God transcends reason and logic. The psalmist ingests God; they take delight in the sweetness of knowing and experiencing God’s love. God indwells in them and, thereby, becomes the fabric of who they are.
How sweet are your words to my taste;
Sweeter than honey to my mouth
Psalm 119:103
In the psalmist hands this tasting becomes the most intimate of our sense experiences. We can taste God in the dark. In all those places where we believe ourselves to be alone or flawed; we find that God is there.
The question for me and, possibly, for you is: can we love God to the point that we no longer see ourselves as anything other than beloved? Can we ingest God so fully that we understand that God truly loves us—every one of us—warts and all? Have you savored the taste of God lately? |