Advent Day 18: Sweet and Salty
Josh Lamm is a member of our Launch Team and our brother-in-law. He’s married to Kristen, and is the proud dog dad to Dexter and Jacoby. Josh works at the ReThink Group and will be contributing more than anyone will ever know at The Parish.
When I was younger, I couldn’t wait for summer. No school, just fun. You see I got to spend the summers with my grandparents in Pennsylvania. Besides my father, my grandfather was one of the most influential people in my life. He taught me how to play golf, he helped me learn how to read and he showed me how to make the best egg sandwiches. I could list many, many more things that he taught me–some of them significant and some of them, not so significant.
One of the seemingly less important things my grandfather passed on to me was a love of fruit. I can remember so many summer moments either making fruit salad with him, or cutting a watermelon in half and eating an entire half with a spoon. It was one of these moments when I learned a pretty life-altering lesson.
We were hanging out by the pool and he asked if I wanted some fruit, I said sure and followed him inside like I had done so many times before. He cut up some cantaloupe and sat down next to me. Then something crazy happened! He grabbed the salt. He then put salt on his cantaloupe and ate it. My grandfather had never steered me wrong when it came to food so I gave it a shot. Man was that the best decision I ever made.
Sweet and Salty. This experience opened my eyes to a whole new way of eating, one in which two worlds collide to make something better than each on it’s own. It is my opinion that sweet is oh so much sweeter with salty. I know it might sound crazy, but that is the first thing that popped in my head when I was reading todays Psalm.
Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. ~Ps 119:49-50
Sometimes the bad can feel really bad, but would the good be as good with out the bad? It can be hard to have hope in bad circumstances but our hope in our suffering is made greater by the promises God has made us.
During advent we reflect on scripture, we pray and we prepare our hearts to celebrate one of the greatest promises ever kept. When I remember how salt changed cantaloupe for me, I think about how God’s fulfilled promise changes hope for me. As I think about Christ coming again, it is with a hope that is much sweeter and brings greater peace because of the suffering and the brokenness of this world—two worlds colliding to make something better than each on it’s own.
