Taste and see in 2022
Psalm 34:8
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (New International Version)
For the second year in a row, our Christmas plans stripped down by the raging pandemic. Unbelievably, this year’s Christmas was worse than last year.
This Christmas lunch in 2021, I was not able to taste the meal in front of me. My mother, husband and I had COVID. I seemed to have been worse affected and lost my sense of smell and taste. Eating felt pretty pointless. It made me feel disconnected from Christmas celebrations, disconnected from my family and disconnected from God.
But as the New Year dawns and my sense of taste returns, a comforting whisper from the Holy Spirit — “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Taste — our sense of taste is linked to our smell. To get my taste back, I needed to stimulate my sense of smell. The 4 scents I needed to sniff each day as treatment were Citrus, Rose, Eucalyptus and Cloves. Desperate to taste food again, I started immediately. Within a week, it worked! Never had food tasted so good.
Taste … that the Lord is good — Life is tasteless when the divine hand of God is absent. Just like absent smell and taste, absent faith and trust in the invisible hand of God, leaves life bland, boring and even pointless.
See — the Hebrew root of “see” is to “drink deeply”. The Passion translation expresses is as: “Drink deeply of the pleasures of this God.” What I “saw” through spiritual eyes was how the only thing that could satisfy me, in the absence of taste, was time in His Holy presence, drinking deeply of His love and goodness.
See … that the Lord is good — seeing is believing…so the saying goes. I looked intently at my food as I ate without taste. At least seeing, somehow allowed for some sense of enjoyment of the tasteless food. Seeing the state of the world currently is not stirring hope for 2022 and may even leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. But staring on God again, seeing and seeking the good works of God all around us, shifts our experience of life for the good. Focusing on God’s promises, awakens our senses to all His blessings for us.
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! — May 2022 unlock blessings for you. May you experience God’s invisible hand as you trust in Him for glorious, divine good works in your life. As The passion Translation expressed it, “Experience for yourself the joyous mercies he gives to all who turn to hide themselves in him.”
God’s will for you and me is that we taste and see His goodness — may you experience and sense God is fresh ways this 2022. Whether it’s hiding in Him or running to Him, there’s a magnificent diversity of blessings for His children to delight our every senses!
“Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see —
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.” (The Message)
