Pooh Bear's Delight
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” Psalm 34:8
So the other day I was in Newcastle, Co. Down. (Being from Northern Ireland I should claim that our Newcastle is superior to the one in England, but given that it is one of those tacky seaside towns where everywhere is either a fast-food shop, a pub, an overpriced amusements arcade or an ice-cream shop, that would be a lie…). I was down for a university CU preterm weekend with some friends and some new acquaintances who are on their way to becoming friends, but that is beside the point. The point is, I was in Newcastle, and we went to Mauds for ice-cream. [Mauds being a great Northern Ireland ice-cream brand, famous for Pooh Bear ice-cream, which is like honeycomb ice-cream, only for some unknown reason (seen as it essentially is just honeycomb ice-cream) much nicer. There is just something about the softness of it, and the honeycomb pieces they use are pure perfection – not too big, not too small, crunchy, but not too hard.]
As it was wet (as it usually is in Northern Ireland) we were sitting in, so I decided to try one of their ice-cream sundaes. And given how much I like Pooh Bear, I went for the Pooh Bear’s Delight sundae. It was a bowl of Pooh bear ice-cream, covered in this warm, really tasty chocolate sauce, with mini-marshmallows, flake, a café curl wafer thing – it was like ice-cream nirvana. Seriously, words cannot do justice to how good it was!
And now you are wondering what is going on here. What has this description of an ice-cream I enjoyed got to do with anything All4God related? Well, here is where things get spiritual. See, I’ve been describing how good this ice-cream is, but you won’t really know how good it is unless you taste it and experience it for yourself (which for those of you who aren’t in Northern Ireland will require some serious effort on your part!). And that is just how it is with non-believers and God. We can tell them about His love, but ultimately what’ll make a difference is if they experience it for themselves. If they taste and see that the Lord is good. We need to be showing God’s love to people so that they can get a personal experience rather than just descriptions.
There is power in words- they can get people curious and cause them to start them thinking. Reading this, chances are you hadn’t heard of Pooh Bear’s Delight before. And chances are after reading this you won’t have decided it is your new favourite ice-cream. But you may well be curious to try it if you get a chance and see if it lives up to my acclamation. Likewise as we tell people about Christ and what He has done for us it’ll get them curious. And then as they see us living it out, following Jesus’ instruction to love God and love all people, showing love to the world they will have the opportunity to taste for themselves and see that ‘the Lord is good’. So today don’t just tell people how good God is, let them see by your actions too! We need to give people a chance to experience God’s goodness, not just hear about it. And maybe then we’ll see people turn to God like never before.
{NB – Mauds didn’t pay me for this post or anything (although if a Mauds employee is reading this I’ll take any free ice-cream you want to offer me!). I just happened to have this spiritual insight after eating one of their ice-creams. Spiritual revelation may be available upon eating over brands of ice-cream}