I sat once again slowly savouring the fluffy
white sweetness of the dessert as it rolled around in my mouth feeling for the
one whole almond, amidst the varying size pieces, for one of us to find…
perhaps me. My only hope was that
someone would find it soon so that we could all relax and just enjoy the
flavour of the wonderful Danish dish usually served at Christmastime and which
I looked forward to more than the meal. If
we are not careful we can chomp on the whole almond and there will be no prize
for the one who finds it.
So every year it gets quiet during
dessert as we sit and gently chew on our special rice pudding with cherry sauce
on top (though I usually pass that by). Occasionally
a person pulls out a larger piece out of their mouth to make sure it isn’t complete
before eating it- such poor etiquette! J But it forces you to mull on the risalmande,
savouring every bite, fully enjoying the texture and flavours of the dish.
The Word of God is similar to the
risalamande in that we need to take small mouthfuls at a time and mull on them
a bit looking for those whole almonds or truths that will help us ‘win the
prize’ of eternal life. Sure, we can
rush through the tasting, chewing and swallowing, but how will we get the full
flavour and enjoy the texture of the dish if we are consuming it so fast? What happens if we quickly chomp down on the
whole almond thus losing it’s full meaning in our lives?
For an example, I was reading Luke 16 the
other day, slowly savouring the words looking for that nugget that would jump
out to me for that day when I read these verses:
No servant can serve two
masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money*."The
Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed**
him. And he said to them, "You are those who
justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted^
among men is an abomination^^ in the sight of God. Lk. 16:13-15 ESV
*treasure, riches **sneered, scoffed at ^exalted: with power, in influence, set the
mind on, aspire to ^^foul, detestable thing, pertaining to idols and idolatry
Now, I’ve read
this many times and various parts of the chapter have jumped out at me but that
day I couldn’t help but think of how much society is like this, sneering and
scoffing at those whose ultimate goal isn’t wealth, power and status. Continuing to think on it, I pondered North
American Christians today who also aspire to wealth, positions of power and
social or spiritual status. Have these
things not become our idolatry even in the church? I think they have as wealth can mean
possessions as well as money. We love
our money and our possessions every bit as much as the world.
Though we may
be able to conceal this love from the world, or from our family and friends,
ultimately God knows our hearts and knows all the idols that we have. These things we aspire to, exalt in our own
eyes, they are and abomination to God.
As I pondered further I looked around the room at all the stuff we have
acquired over the years, stuff that cost money, much of which was unnecessary
and I had to think how much more that money could have done for the kingdom of
God just by sharing it. Then I had to
thing of the ways to apply this knowledge…
This is how
one savours the Word of God trying to find that daily morsel that will lead us
to further understand the Truth. This is
what we call meditation (unlike the eastern forms which are cultic in nature),
and about which the Bible speaks plainly.
This book of the Law
shall not depart out of your mouth,
but you shall meditate
on it by day and by night,
so that you may be careful
to do according to all that is
written in it…
Js. 1:8
To meditate on according to the Bible:
-the Law (Ps.
1:2)
-on His promises
(Ps. 119:148)
-on His statutes
(Ps. 119:48)
-on His works
(Ps. 143:5)
-reading,
exhortation, doctrine, and the gifts (1Tm. 4:15 )