Taste and See

Taste & See
 
       A common phrase from my childhood was “your eyes are bigger than your stomach!” Often when we saw all that was laid out for us at our family Thanksgiving meal there were so many wonderful foods to choose from that we were tempted to take more than we could eat.
When we were old enough to fix our own plates the adults in our family cautioned us to take only what we could eat. Along the same lines we also had to taste the foods which didn’t look appetizing. We had to “taste & see” before judging the food. Very often it took a number of tastings before we liked a specific food.
Imagine if you turned up your nose at the foods at the first Thanksgiving because of how some of them looked, not only might you have gone hungry you might have offended your Native neighbors who had helped you through the very rough year.
Here are of the unusual choices the Pilgrims faced:
Eels – flint corn (multi-colored corn) – lobster – venison – mussels --
Popcorn (a first for them)                     
Some strange sounding food items – would you eat them? What about if you were starving? What would you choose if you and your family were starving? Would you pick some and not others? These are some of the foods the Pilgrims & the Wampanoag Native Americans ate on the First Thanksgiving.
           We also have to “taste and see” what the LORD has in store for us. While this might not refer to the food, we eat but rather the life experiences we face each day. We have to let the LORD, who knows what we need in our Spiritual diet, feed us through His word. This means we need to be in His word daily and worship with Him weekly. We need to be feed through both word and sacrament.
             We also have to wait on Him in His time to see what it is He is doing in our lives.
           We have been blessed to be given everything we need with His book, the Bible, and while it might not be possible to memorize the entire book our LORD has provided us with the ability to hold onto key verses to get us through our trying times.
We too, have many choices to make as we face the unknown with our KNOWN God.
Very often what the LORD calls us to do sounds just as strange to us as the foods that were eaten at the first Thanksgiving.
If we remember that He knows what is best for us and we taste and see we will be able to take our refuge in Him. He will be the one to give us comfort in our times of trouble and our times of joy.
This Thanksgiving remember to give thanks for all the LORD has given to you and your family as your see what He is doing for you.
 
Psalm 34:8 (NIV)
Taste and see that the LORD is good, blessed is the one who takes refuge in him

​1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV) 
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.