30 Days of Tasting

Day 6

A bride eating barbequed ribs—now that’s not somethin’ you see everyday! But it’s somethin’ we saw today. We went to a wedding and reception of one of our kid’s friends. At the reception, before our table was called to the buffet line, I thought I detected the smell of smokey, savory barbeque sauce. Sure enough, as we went through the line, at the end of it were piles of greasy, hard-to-eat-without-making-a-mess ribs.

They definitely are what stand out to me from today, the sixth day in my tasting exercise. I don’t know the last time that I had ribs. I don’t believe that I have ever even made them. I don’t eat ribs largely because they are fattening and you get them all over yourself when you eat them. However, tonight at the reception, they were the hit on my dinner plate!

Evidently, the wedding photographer saw the bride, Becky, eating her ribs with her fingers, shot a picture and said, “That’s the first bride I have ever seen eating ribs.” But it’s SO Becky. It suites her tastes and her personality. She is a robust, fun-loving, always smiling (and singing) young woman who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty—even eating ribs in her wedding dress.

I find that refreshing. I am often too careful to get my hands (and face!) dirty. I opt for safer choices on the menu so that I don’t have to contend with whether I got all the sauce off my face or the meat out from between my teeth.

As I reflect on the sense of taste and how it relates to my spiritual life, this image of an uninhibited bride eating ribs to her heart’s content really sticks with me. It makes me want to throw off my cautious way of living and dig in with all of my being and learn to feast! I picture Jesus being able to do that. Maybe that’s where the rumor got started that he was a glutton and drunkard. Not only did he turn water into to wine at that wedding, he must have eaten ribs!