I read about someone today who drinks ketchup from a bottle. It’s one of the strangest eating (or is it drinking) habits I have encountered but probably not far ahead of the person who dunks their crisps in salad cream, or another individual who likes to eat the biscuit part of a Twix bar first and leave the caramel to last. I even heard of someone who likes to gouge out the inside of roast potatoes, mash it up with the rest of the dinner and then eat the skin separately. It doesn’t take much research to discover that there are more than a few odd eating habits out there, like dipping French Fries in vanilla ice cream, eating all the toppings and cheese off a pizza before eating the crusty base, dipping chips in a big bowl of vinegar or a slice of white bread with topped with whipped cream.A friend of dad’s who used to drop into the house on a regular basis, loved to spread strawberry jam on his apple tart, while another was quite into using butter instead of the jam on top. Another mate would always eat everything off his plate except the meat which he kept to the end and I guess many of us would vouch to having eaten certain things on our plates in a particular order, maybe based on how much we like each food, with the least favoured ones usually going down the hatch first, if at all.
I suppose we all have out little ways. Me? I have been known to eat cold baked beans and if I have chicken, it's almost always the last thing I eat and I'm a bit of a stickler for keeping my rice separate from any accompanying dish in a Chinese restaurant. Yes and those weird, spherical chocolate sweets they call Ferrero Rocher,I always like to bite slowly around the outside layer and remove it as two hemispheres from the inside, though admittedly the rest is a bit messy. And I know wife is a bit partial to egg sandwiches with fizzy Club orange lemonade but probably because it was a bit of a ritual in her house as she grew up.
Another person I have discovered always insisted on drenching absolutely everything with ketchup and could never get enough and I know from school that some kids can’t even begin their dinner until a blob of the red stuff is sitting on the side of their plate. Yet here’s the funny thing and it happens at home too. So often, a large proportion of the ketchup is still left after the meal is finished. It's almost as if the diner must have it there purely as a decoration but never actually intends to use it as a flavouring. Ketchup itself has lots of ingredients apart form tomatoes but the least obvious ones are probably sugar and vinegar. I remember a relation who used to add a spoonful of vinegar to her ketchup bottle just to keep it fresh and it probably worked but the red sauce just tasted vile. Ketchup has been around since the beginning of the nineteenth century but apart form sales by local farmers, it didn't really become a commercial product until marketed by Heinz in the late eighteen hundreds and was advertised as 'Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household!' And while it has been modified down the years it is still a favourite with kids everywhere and also with a lot of big kids too.
But it's that thought of all the ketchup that remains on plates that has me thinking today in a very different context as I mull over the provision which God has made for us. The Psalmist writes 'How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you,which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.' And later on in Psalm 103, we read those words 'Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.' But for so many the goodness of the Lord is never tasted or else we never really try to exhaust His grace towards us, so that while we could be feasting on what He has for us, we end up without the full flavour of his goodness.
In Japan it is considered rude to finish all of your meal as it suggest that your host didn't provide enough for you. In many western countries it would be offensive to leave food, possibly indicating your dislike for something offered. So when God offers us the riches of His kingdom, how do you think He feels when we choose not to taste His goodness. Don't leave Him on the side of your life.
