As I watched this past week the numerous reality TV shows that we’re now bombarded with on every channel, I was left feeling a bit disappointed about my own life and talents. As I watched one show I was left wishing, “Wow, I wish I had a voice that could belt out a tune like that.” Another channel and another show I was thinking to myself, “I wish I had time to renovate so I could have my house looking as nice as that.” I guess we all wish we could live in a nice tidy, functional house (especially with four kids to contend with). Turning to another channel I see an ad for my favourite reality TV show where people cook and create culinary masterpieces and that left me saying to myself, “Gee Whiz, I wish I could create a dish like that.”
And all along as I was thinking I wish I could be like that or have this or taste that, I realised what I do have and how I am created by God. The problem with watching a cooking show on TV is that I cant taste it and I can’t salivate over the smell and aroma that’s going on in the studio.
But we can make that taste and that smell come alive in our hearts and thru our senses cant we? The same way we can make the Word of God come alive in our hearts and thru our lives and everything we do. As I read the bible, time and time again the words will jump out straight out of the page and into my mind and heart and soul. I can suddenly taste it and it becomes real to me.
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” – Psalm 119:103
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” – 1 Peter 2:2-3
Even in Colossians 4 we’re told to let our conversation always be full of grace and seasoned with salt because we know how things taste when they’re saltless. To think of God’s Word as sweeter than honey is a new taste sensation that would blow our minds once we place it in our mouths. Jesus is perfect and we only need the reality of his word to gain a better understanding of his love, grace and character.
Again it’s like seeing our lives as a totally devoid room with no roof, cracks in the walls and feeling overwhelmed by seeing the total decay around us, not knowing where to start or which way to turn. But with Jesus, we know we can turn that room that represents our life into a beautiful display of design and execution because of what he’s done and achieved by giving his life up for us. And the great thing is that he’s not going to judge us or vote us off because Jesus has us for keeps. We now belong to him and as Romans 8:38-39 tells us,
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What a wonderful reassurance we have when our faith and trust is grounded in Christ. What a wonderful thing it is to watch the reality of Jesus entering a person’s life and turning it around from an empty decrepit room or a bunch of ingredients and seeing a beautiful picture and masterpiece come out from it.