Good morning, Five Minute Families! Today, we are going to talk about food – well, kind of. I am a foodie, and I have worked hard over the last 25 years to convert Kim into one as well. (I wouldn’t call myself a foodie, per se, but I definitely appreciate flavors way more than I used!) One thing Kim categorically tried to avoid for most of her young life was salad of any kind – green, mixed, vegetable, fruit. You name it; she avoided it.

Untilllll, I found Caesar salad. And I wouldn’t try any other salads for years after that. Then, out with my girlfriends from church one mom’s night out, I saw the fandango salad at Panera Bread – gorgonzola cheese (like blue cheese), mandarin oranges, field greens, romaine lettuce, walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette. I had recently started liking mandarin oranges and blue cheese, so I decided to try. And, wow!

The thing about being a foodie means that I am always trying to find that perfect ingredient to enhance the other flavors of the foods on the plate. Just as salt reacts with the molecules of food, it changes them, causing parts of them to become airborne enhancing the aroma. Additionally, it can enhance or suppress, increases sweetness while decreasing bitterness in the certain concentrations. Matthew 5:13 says “You are the salt of the earth…” The trick is that we get to know the concentrations each family member or friend may need. You are to flavor and change the relationships around you in Christ. That means bringing the salt that enhance the sweet while suppressing the bitter. A recipe is a guide for cooking; the Bible is our guide for relating.

So, the thing about that fandango salad is – as one blogger says, “[It’s] Fresh greens with a little tang, a little sweetness, and a little crunch” making for a great salad. It is a combination of parts that don’t seem to fit together, but through the unifying factor of the raspberry vinaigrette, the ingredients become MORE than their individual parts. Just like salt, the unifying factor transforms parts from bitter or uninviting to sweet and pleasant.

Recently, our pastor used the “Jesus isn’t dressing” analogy to point out that we are not to use the Lord to cover up the unpalatable aspects of our sin, and he is correct if that is what we are doing. We do not want to COVER our sin; we want God to transform us. And, search your hearts, five minute families. You know that God made you unique and wonderful. He gave you gifts to use for your good AND his glory. He wants those gifts magnified to bring about the greater work of His kingdom.

So, back to the family foodie analogy… while we are on this earth, we will still do battle with our sinful nature. We will have bitter parts. But God can AND WILL transform us… He will remove the bitter as we become more and more like His son, so as we work together in our family, we can see the transforming aspect of Jesus, taking away the bitter and making us into something more amazing than we ever thought possible.

God describes our relationship with Him on familial terms, and He used familial terms for our larger biblical community as well. In fact, biblically, the most-used analogy for how God relates to us is family-based. Because, God knows that His family is more than the sum of its parts. We are transformed into something amazing with His son washing away the bitter parts and uniting us as a whole.

Table Talk summarized a few Bible verse family analogies this way:

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:9 to address God in prayer as Father.

John 1:12–13 says that God gives believers in Jesus the right to become “children of God” and that they are “born . . . of God.”

Ephesians 1:5 teaches that God predestined us for “adoption to himself as sons” through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:25–27 reminds us that Jesus relates to the church as a loving groom to his bride.

Hebrews 2:11 proclaims that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers.

Family members are diverse, unique, and different from one another by God’s design, and His plan for our reconciliation and unification as many parts of the whole is by the offering of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. Let’s make sure that Jesus is in every taste of our family’s salad – a little tang, a little sweet, a little crunch, and so much more. Relationships takes practice much like cooking; let us help you explore your family recipe at Clear View Retreat. Be blessed!