Taste-tests, Recipe-tests, and Faith-tests

 

Yesterday's bean-cooking and bagging for the freezer made me crave a good batch of chili

so I tried the recipe on the kidney beans bag for something different.

We didn't care for the the cinnamon flavour.

I also added green beans for more veggies which 

didn't impress some of my 'supper-kins' much.

They love green beans...but could have done without them in their chili!

Green beans is one of my fav veggies so I thought they added a nice touch😀

My kids often tease me and say I turn everything I eat into a salad.

I prefer everything I eat on salad! yum!

This was a simple salad of romaine lettuce, thinly sliced cabbage and toasted sesame seeds.

With chili it needed no dressing though some used their favorite bottled variety.

I enjoy watching cooking shows...esp. the ones filmed in places like Italy...

 

...but no matter how much they mix and stir and sip and taste and rave and m-m-m!

I can't smell or taste a thing!

I can imagine what the air might smell like in a vineyard, sun-steeped and musky,

or the aromas as they sear and season,

or the flavours as they taste-test to see if it is good!

But that's it...I can only imagine.

So it is with everything in life;

until we experience it we guess at what it might be like.

Have you ever wished you could make someone taste something because you love it, 

but they refuse, certain they will not like it! 

And until they have a change of heart pleading is vain!

...and there it is; the change of heart which we cannot force.

So too then, for all who have not 'tasted to see that the Lord is good,'

we pray for that sacred eternity-altering change of heart.

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; 

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

Psalm 34:8

We cannot force love or belief

The heart must first concede

To the small voice that stirs the chief

Of choice to sense its need

For hope and faith and humble trust

Mere Must cannot achieve

No matter how we kick the dust

Where death does not deceive

The thread of numbered centuries

Unfurls a world of ‘should’

Wise is the one who tastes and sees

That God alone is good

…for He is love; all goodness starts

With He who is its Source

Belief begins with change of heart

…a choice that none can force

Then pray, before it is too late

That one and all will choose

To taste what naught can imitate

And none should dare refuse

Yes, pray before it is too late

We taste more than enough

Not from a laden dinner plate

But God's redeeming love

 

© Janet Martin

To be filled with awe and wonder
At the love of God for man
Satisfies howling heart-hunger
Like nothing in this world can