Taste and see that the Lord is good
The holiday season is upon us once again and with it comes the opportunity for us to experience new things; new places, new countries, new people, new food and new culture, and the list could go on.
Whilst I love the familiarity and comfort of home I also love going on holiday and the excitement of the new experience it offers. One of the things I love to do on holiday is to try new foods especially those I’m not familiar with.
When I was in Kenya I stayed with a local family and ate what they ate. Most of the time I didn’t have a clue what I was eating but most of the time 
it was too dark to seewhat it was anyway. But, for the most part the food was tasty. I say ‘for the most part’ because one of the things I ate nearly every day was something called Ugali, It was a staple part of the diet for poorer Kenyans. It was made from maize flour and water mixed up into a dough-like constituency. The traditional method of eating it is to roll some into a ball, and then dip it into whatever stew was on offer; more often than not for me it was a stew made out of fish heads. Tasty but not often seen on the Great British Menu. I have to say Ugali was disgust
ing and I never got used to the taste of it though we ate it most days – I nicknamed it Ugly.
One of the other things I ate a lot of in Kenya was mangos, fresh mangos, often picked from trees as we walked to one village or another. They were delicious, packed full of flavour and, Oh so juicy. Psalm 34:8 says this, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” You know there is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God; a difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. Before I went to Kenya I knew mangos grew there now that I’ve tasted them any others seem tasteless and dull in comparison.
Psalm 34: 8 is not about the knowledge of God but the experience of God and once we’ve experienced God in our lives then the old way of life is tasteless and dull by comparison. God created us so that we can experience the best life has to offer and I know that the best life has to offer can only be experienced when we have God within us.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
God bless.
Jeff