Taste This, Please (10/13/2024)

When an out-of-town relative comes to visit, I always invite my children and grandchildren to come for a meal and to spend time with our guest. My husband’s sister, Martha, has been visiting with us this past week, and so Saturday was the appointed time for family to come together. Most were able to make it. Martha had requested that we have spaghetti because she knew that was one of the family’s favorite dinners. So, spaghetti it was.

About an hour before the designated “dinner time,” I started the prep. Everyone present was talking and sharing. There was a big circle around the kitchen table; there was a separate conversation going on in the family room. I got all the ingredients together for the sauce. I thought it was just right, but I wanted a second opinion because this was a special meal. So, I called my oldest grandson, Vincent, and asked him, “taste this, please.” He did. He savored it. He thought a bit. Then he told me that he thought it was just right. That meant a lot to me. The recipe was his father’s; it was Tony’s spaghetti. No one knew when it was right better than Vincent.

Sometimes, don’t you know, we need a second opinion, we need to share what we are doing with another human being, someone who will be honest with us, someone who will tell us what is missing or what needs to be discarded. We can’t let our pride get in the way of offering our best: our best work, our best effort, our best selves. That’s one of the pluses on the journey, being able to draw upon the knowledge and expertise of others, being able to ask for advice, being able to ask for help when needed.

Supper was delicious.  And hopefully, having humbly brushed up on one of the points of the journey, allowing others to accompany us and even asking for their help, my future here will be richer. Our LORD provides and often it is through the presence of another. But it requires humility and self-knowledge.

As we continue our journeys of faith, buoyed by hope, and fueled by love, may we rely first upon the LORD and then upon those who accompany us on the journey, trusting in their desire for us to “get it right.”

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.