Page 36 - Lenten Devotional 2021 updated 01-21
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Day 22  - Mmm Mmm Good: You Just  Gotta’ Taste & See!

            Scripture:
            O  taste  and see  that the  Lord  [our  God] is  good; how  blessed  [fortunate,
            prosperous and favored by God] is the one who takes refuge in Him
                                                    Psalm 34:8 (Amplified)

            Reflection:
            I absolutely love the oxymoron that Psalm 34:8 is! I love the notion of being able
            to see as a result of tasting something and what better thing to taste and then see
            than the goodness of the Lord! For me, this scripture bespeaks just how divinely
            paradoxical our God is—how His thoughts are not like our thoughts and how His
            ways are not like our ways (Isaiah 55:8); and, indeed, how His Kingdom is not
            of this world (John 18:36).

            So, what exactly is it that we are able to taste that lets us see God’s goodness?
            First and foremost, it is imperative that we allow ourselves to taste God’s Love—
            God’s agape Love for us—so we can see just how incredibly good God’s Love
            is: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
            believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This is
            such an important tasting for those of us who are the unloved of society; those
            of us who are the hunted, haunted and harmed because of the failure of others to
            love and honor the image and likeness of God that we all are.

            Jesus  clearly  had  a  special  Love,  a  redemptive  and  healing  Love  for  th e
            oppressed, downcast and outcast of society. Thus, no matter how unloving others
            are toward us, and even how unloving we can be of ourselves, tasting God’s
            unconditional Love for us enables us to see His goodness and, because we are
            made in His image and likeness, to recognize that we are created to reflect His
            goodness, i.e., His Love, as well.

            Prayer:
            Beloved Lord God, I so pray that You will take the bitter and deadly taste of the
            world out of our mouths along with the blinding, fleshly scales from our eyes so
            we can truly taste and see Your awesome goodness. Amen.

            About the Contributor:

                                 Rev. Dr. Janae Moore
                                Mt. Zion AME Church

                              (continued on following day)




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