Today's Devotional

July 20, 2004

Subject:  Shawn's Spaghetti

Psalms 34:8 - "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

I've been living in Northern Virginia so many years now that I've established quite a few customs.  One of them is to never miss Mom's (Shawn's mother) potato salad, fried chicken, hamburgers and steaks.  She will usually do it on a Sunday and it occurs often with no notice or warning.  She or Shawn will simply up and call me and let me know, so I alter my schedule for that great feast that will take place. 

The food items above are my favorite foods from Momma Link, but Shawn's are somewhat different.  This past Sunday he didn't know that I was headed to the airport going out of town so he called to say, "mom's making spaghetti."  Of course my reaction was "and..." because after all this time, Shawn knows that I'm typically not a huge spaghetti fan, but he's so overwhelmed by it, that he simply can't see how anyone could do without it.

That's the spiritual message.  We're overwhelmed with what we have and at every opportunity, we're trying to offer it up to others.  How could anybody not like what we're offering.  The final illustration of Shawn's offer to me to eat spaghetti shows us how we convince people to come to the "great feast."  Once, when Shawn called with the spaghetti offer, I patronized him and said, "okay, I'll be over."  Well, I got there and had some, and then had a little more and more and more until now, when he says mom is making spaghetti, I'll go, not because he's offering, but because I've tasted it and know what his enthusiasm is about. 

So how do we get 'em to come to the "great banquet" prepared for us?  We give 'em a taste.

Carlen