Taste and See

When I read this today it just really spoke to my heart. This verse just wrapped around me like a warm blanket. How amazing is it that we have a God who invites us to come to Him and take refuge in Him. And to not only have Him as a place of refuge, but to also be blessed for accepting that place of refuge.

I think when I have read this verse in the past, I could never get past the ‘taste and see’ part. I think my brain just stopped there and went, ‘What are you talking about?’ How can you ‘taste’ God? What is up with that? But then today the pieces finally came together.
Today the first part that caught my attention was the part ‘How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.’ ‘Who takes refuge in Him.’ That phrase was like a warm blanket that just wrapped itself around me. How wonderful is it that we have a God who invites us to make Him our refuge. Once that caught me, I went back and reread the entire verse and just like that another piece fell into place.
When we stop and think about the concept of ‘taste and see’, what do we ‘taste and see’ in real life? Immediately the thought came to me. We talk to our children about ‘taste and see’ when we want them to try something new. We tell them ‘Just taste it and see if you like it.’ We want them to take a chance on something new and try it. And I think that that is what God is talking about here. He’s calling us to take a chance, to give Him a try, to ‘taste and see’ what He has to offer us. He knows, as we often do about our children, that if we try Him, if we ‘taste and see’ what He has to offer us, we are going to fall in love with Him.

This is kind of a random analogy, but I immediately think of tacos. Imagine offering someone tacos for the first time. You see a wonderful heap of fabulousness wrapped in cover of deliciousness. They look at it and they see a pile of possibly greasy slime dumped in with other stuff. And you’re just saying to them, just ‘taste and see’ you’re going to like this. It’s so wonderful. But, until they actually try what you are offering them, until they taste that taco, they cant possibly understanding what is so amazing about it.

Now it may seem crude to even casting our Lord into that category, isn’t this kind of what He is saying here? ‘Come here my child and taste this. Try this and try Me. I will be a refuge for you. I will bless you. You just have to ‘taste and see’ and you will understand.