Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part XVIII
from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman
Mindset to rethink: Can anything taste better than grilling?
“Taste and see that the Lord is Good.” What does God taste like?
Where I live we have a lot of “all you can eat” restaurants that for a fix price allows you to practice the sin of gluttony. Fake mash potatoes, vegetables out of gallon cans, pastas, and bread and bake goods to fill you, plus plenty to drink. We do not think we have “gotten our monies worth” unless we leave the place about to puke. Quantity is fabulous; quality is questionable.
When my sister became a gourmet chef, my mindset and attitude toward eating changed. Gourmet cooking is all about eating for “taste”. The first time I ate at a gourmet restaurant, my first impression was shock at the “small portions”. When those small portions were placed in my mouth, I did not want to chew and swallow with speed to increase my intake, but stopped chewing, savoring every morsel, sucking out as much taste as I could with every bite. The taste was heavenly, enriched, and full. Each bite became an exotic experience unto itself. “Oh’s”, “ahhhhs”, and “mmmm’s” preceded every bite. When finished, I did not feel gluttonously ill, I felt pleasantly satisfied. Each loaf of bread, each blanched vegetable, each tenderly roasted and seasoned piece of meat, each succulent dessert was created for “taste”, and the chef succeeded.
Jesus knows about taste, for his first recorded miracle was making water into wine at a wedding that was so tasteful that the groom got bawled out for leaving the best wine for last.
Did you ever wonder what was on the menu at the “Great Feast” that is to be held in heaven. I remember the painting of the long table, set for supper, but no food is yet placed on it. Will it be turkey and mash potatoes like Thanksgiving? Will there be ethnic foods? Will there be fruits? Oh yeah, being spiritual, “fruits of the Spirit”! I should have known?
My daughter and some of her friends have begun to go eat with the homeless several nights a week by buying pizza, chicken, etc. and eating it with them on the streets. What they have begun to taste is more than the pizza; they have tasted friendship, bonding, caring. They got a “taste” of missions, a “taste” of service, a “taste” of who Jesus really wants at his banquet as taught in his parable where all his guests have excuses not to come, so he tells his servants to go to the highway and byways. They have experienced a “taste” of church outside of its walls. By giving back to the Lord food he has provided to them, they got a “taste” of true worship.
“Taste and see that the Lord is Good.”