by Emily Conrad
Though I haven’t lived overseas or in a different culture for an extended period, my sister has. From her, I know how precious it is to obtain food from one’s home country while overseas.
Some ingredients are hard to come by, requiring trips to small foriegn foods stores that may or may not stock the coveted item. Other ingredients may be available… but different
With some dishes, it’s too hard to get close to a taste of home; it’s not even worth the effort. And even when it is possible to get close for a meal or two, differences between home and overseas abound. Our taste buds are too aware of what they’re missing, and nothing else will fool them.
Christians are supposed to be travelers in this world, more loyal to our King in heaven than to everything we see and taste and feel around us. It’s hard sometimes, to be a citizen of a place we’ve never lived. Our loyalties can be fickle, in part because we don’t entirely know what we’re missing.
But God hasn’t left us without a taste of home. He came to us here, in this land away from home. He walked this earth and sends us His Spirit. Our relationship with Him starts here.
More than just an illusion of home created by a single meal, we have the reality of relationship with God, and the deeper we immerse ourselves in our Father’s culture, the more nothing else will fool us.
The more time we spend reading our Father’s Word, the more fluent we’ll be in His language. The more we speak with Him, the more our thoughts and actions will reflect our identity in Him.
We’ll gain a taste for the heavenly, and nothing else will satisfy.
The flavors of sin will repel us instead of drawing us in.
The places the world goes for comfort and peace will lose their allure.
As Philippians 3:20 says, “our citizenship is in heaven – and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (NET). One day, He will take us there, to a place where our longing for peace and joy and God will be fully and completely satisfied.
In the meantime, we have something much better than a small grocery store to tide us over in this foreign land. We have a Bread of Life, the Living Water, a taste of heaven on earth.
Photo credits
Lantern in alley by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash
Red lantern and doorway by Frédérique Gélinas on Unsplash
Colorful lanterns in hallway by Jay Ma on Unsplash
Wow, this is beautiful, Emily. Such a powerful analogy! I love your closing line–we have a "taste of heaven on earth." Amen!
God is so good to give us everything we need for our travels on this earth, including a taste of our true home! Thanks for stopping by, Jerusha!
That was amazing and so beautiful. I wrote what you said "We have a Bread of Life, the Living Waters, a taste of heaven on earth. I put it on a little index card for my wall by the bed and I can read it when I wake up. Thank you again Emily, God Bless!
Thank you, Linda! I just love Jesus's shouted invitation in John 7:37-38: On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink." (NET) How amazing that God would invite us to this relationship with Him!