Devotion: Tasting God in More Than Just My Spaghetti

For six summers of my life, I worked at a Christian summer camp. As many of you likely do in your youth groups each week, we would end our nights sharing our highs and lows of the day with all the members of our cabin. We often would ask the kids to also share where they saw God that day.

One week, I had a group of particularly rowdy girls in my cabin and they decided they didn’t want to just report where they SAW God, but where they heard him or felt him. It was actually very neat. I think my favorite response, though, was when a girl, in all seriousness proclaimed, “I TASTED God in my spaghetti!” After we composed ourselves from laughing so hard we cried, I recalled verse 8 from Psalm 34:

“Taste and see that the LORD is good. Blessed is the person who takes refuge in him.”

So much of the world around us tries to point to a God who “could never be good.” For example, how many of you have ever asked or heard someone else ask, “How could a loving God ever let people suffer the way they do?” or “Why do bad things happen to good people?” All these questions center around the doubt that maybe, just maybe, God ISN’T good.

God’s response?

Taste. See. I AM good.

Like a mom who encourages us to try at least one bite of a food we’re skeptical of, God just asks us to simply try it out, to do a quick taste-test. Because when we do, He knows that we’ll see His goodness in ways we can’t begin to imagine. He may not give us answers to why bad things happen, but He does offer a refuge for us in the confusing times. As we rest in that refuge, we’ll begin to see His goodness.

Where have YOU tasted His goodness today? Where is it hard to taste His goodness right now? Ask God today to show it to you. He will. He already has–in the greatest demonstration of His goodness ever, the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. I’m guessing the disciples didn’t see God as good on that “Good” Friday 2000 years ago, when Jesus died, but when they discovered the Risen Christ two days later, they were tasting his goodness is WAY more than their spaghetti!