Why I Don’t Like The Taste Of Communion

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

I was always nervous about Communion Sunday growing up. 

When I was young I wasn’t sure if I should take a cracker from the plate or keep passing it down the aisle. Sure, I was hungry, but was I really allowed to “come to the table” as the pastor would say?

Then, once I did feel comfortable participating, I became nervous about spilling the juice. What if I soiled the carpet in God’s living room with Jesus’s blood?

Communion never meant much more than anxiety to me growing up. I never really got the relationship between a flavorless cracker, a baby shot glass of grape juice, and the immense sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I thought to myself, “If the life Jesus offers is so full and abundant, why is this remembrance and celebration so stale and bland?” Continue reading

A Christmas Recipe For All Seasons

photo-9Ah, Christmas cookies. The final taste of sweetness before Christmas goes to bed for another year.

Whether leaving a plate for Santa or stealing the last crumb for yourself, it’s hard to beat a freshly baked Christmas cookie.

A cookie is sweet perfection for just a moment. It’s a glorious moment, but it’s merely a moment.

Before you know it, the flavor is gone. The joy you experienced is temporary. It’s hollow. It’s just a morsel of something greater.

Christmas has a way of being like this. The holiday season is a sweet moment. Everything in the world seems right and perfect. But often it’s just a moment. Some years it seems there’s nothing lasting about Christmas that leaves a mark on us. Continue reading

Can Christmas Lose Its Flavor?

photo-6Christmas tastes like Egg Nog.

For some, Christmas has a Peppermint taste. Gingerbread is the flavor of Christmas for others. Still many think Christmas has the flavor of a Chocolate Covered Cherry. (I will refuse to recognize the mentally unstable people who think Christmas tastes like Fruitcake.)

For me, though, Egg Nog is what my holiday palate craves. I wasn’t on the Egg Nog bandwagon until a few years ago. The name, color, and reputation of Nog was off-putting to me. But I decided to be adventurous and give it a shot.

I’ve been an Egg Nog advocate ever since, taking in all the different flavors including the famous Egg Nog Latte from Starbucks. (For the record, I’m not all that big on alcoholic Egg Nog. Just pour me a class of the rich, thick liquid without any add-ins and I’ll happily put it down.)

As the Christmas season wears on and my Egg Nog intake adds up, I begin wondering why the sweet treat isn’t available year-round. Why must my taste buds be deprived 11 months out of the year?

The question then becomes this: Would Egg Nog still be so special if it was available all year? Continue reading