I wasn’t born craving chocolate, actually. I didn’t know it would become a necessity of life until I tasted it for the first time.

And I didn’t come out of the box loving the taste of a ripe, creamy avocado, or a sweet pecan; but it was instant love. New places in my appetite stirred and I wanted more.

And I certainly had no idea when I was five years old that someday it would be absolutely vital that my taste buds be treated regularly to garlic and rosemary and thyme. I actually thought I didn’t like apples that much, until I tasted one that had fallen right off a tree into my hand at the perfect moment of its crispy, tart sweetness.

I flat out expected NOT to like the spicy burn of red peppers, until one day, against my will it happened, and won me over. Big time.

For the first almost 30 years of my life, I had no appetite for God, either… until one day I asked him to give me a real taste. He answered me with a taste that would usurp the mass-produced version I had sniffed occasionally at the market and kept putting back.

One real taste of the Lord, and I could never live another day without Him.

For now I’m going to slip past the temptation to write about how all of us who know Christ should provide a good taste of him to others. I will just say, when you think of others who need Him, pray that God will send His Spirit to give them an authentic taste of Himself.

It’s a good prayer, efficient, and in my imagination, one the Lord would not hesitate to answer.

Taste and see that the Lord is good…  Psalms 34:8 (NIV)