Sense of taste
I am just getting my sense of taste back and it’s pretty wonderful. I have to say, I am so blessed because my loss of taste only lasted a few days. But wow, those few days had some serious impact on my life. I have now discovered how pretty much anyone can drop weight like nobody’s business – just take away their sense of taste.
Now to be clear, I am not recommending losing your sense of taste. I did NOT want to lose any weight and it was not my intention to drop a couple of pounds. But I can’t express enough how depressing it is to put something you know to be delicious in your mouth and there’s just nothing. You can sense the texture is good and still normal, but zero flavor. It’s worse than caffeine free coffee. Or non-alcoholic beer. It’s just… well, not right.
Entitled
And when I was thinking these thoughts, I realized how entitled I was. Why should I expect to have taste? That’s sort of obvious, I know, but why should ANY of us expect to have taste? I mean, God could have made everything to be one flavor, and if it was not OK to eat (i.e. it could kill you or make you sick), He could have designed it to turn black or something super simple like that. What is the point of flavor besides just to bring us joy? Which often makes us want to eat more? Sometimes LOTS more! Flavors and smells are wonderful, but for the most part, unnecessary to our existence or survival.
The same can be said for laughter. It’s completely unnecessary. We’re the only species on the earth that actually laughs. Again, we don’t need to laugh for survival, but we can and we do. It’s just this icing on the cake of life the LORD gives each one of us, for no particular reason. Just for the pure joy of it.
Which led me to think about why did God make ANYTHING that holds no value for survival and/or can be abused? Besides food and laughter, another obvious example is sex. He could have made it painful so it would never be abused. Or He could have made it boring so it never had a draw. But He didn’t. Why?
God is so good
And that made me think some more (can you tell I’ve had a lot of time to think during this time of quarantine?). God is just so good. He knew many of the gifts He gave us could be abused or taken for granted. He knew we WOULD abuse these gifts and take them for granted. But He still gave them to us. From something as ordinary as flavors, to something as contagious as laughter, to something as intimate as sex. And so many other things in between.
Obviously, this is my own conjecture, but I think He gave us all of these gifts to test our faith. Will we trust Him to feed our mouths with good things to eat? Things we enjoy? Will we believe Him and obey when He tells us we need to stop and have self-control? Will we trust Him to provide for our future needs? Will we believe Him when He tells us He wants the very best for us, a life that is full and good? Or will we do things our own way? Not trusting God, the author of delicious flavors, melodic laughter, and holy sex?
Incredible gifts
These gifts are not just good gifts. They’re great gifts! They’re incredible gifts! We should honor God and praise His name for these good gifts He gives us! And we should hold all of it with an open hand to the LORD. Should He choose to take away a gift, will we be content with whatever He has decided to provide? Will we honor Him with thanksgiving, no matter the circumstance, trusting Him to give us good things, regardless of whether or not we understand or agree?
The LORD daily proves in big and small ways that He will undoubtedly give us many, many good things. We must keep in mind, we don’t deserve any of it. The LORD doesn’t HAVE to provide any of these gifts for us. But it pleases Him to give His creation good things. He is faithful and good. I pray that all of us give glory to God for how He provides uniquely for each one of us in big and small ways. He truly is so good.
LORD, help us all to be a people who recognizes the good things we are given and honor the One giving them to us.
