As summer turns to autumn, shorter days and crisp air stir up visions of hearty soups and crusty homemade bread. It won’t be long before the holidays give me a good excuse to bake a spicy dessert or savor a mug of hot chocolate. Our Creator not only gave us an abundant variety of foods but He included the taste buds to enjoy them.
According to Wikipedia, “taste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds.”1 Our tongues are covered with thousands of bumps called papillae. Each bump, or papillae, contains hundreds of taste buds, and each taste bud contains 50 to 100 taste receptors.2 Receptors differentiate between sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and an earthy taste found in foods such as meats. These main taste categories intermingle and diversify like colors created by mixing the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow.
“The taste receptor cells send information detected by clusters of various receptors and ion channels to the gustatory areas of the brain via the seventh, ninth and tenth cranial nerves.”3 Our Creator installed unbelievable technology in between our ears! Taste receptors work in conjunction with smell and nerve to register texture and temperature. Our taste systems not only distinguish the flavors of hot bread and salty butter and/or sweet jam but they pick up the softness of the bread and the crunchiness of the crust. Our taste-testing system knows if the soup is too hot or too cold. It definitely knows that lukewarm is not tasty at all!
As with physical eyes that see, the Bible exhorts us to look to Jesus and be encouraged in our faith. Scripture tells us that the Good Shepherd’s sheep hear His voice with spiritual ears. Psalm 34:8 tells us to “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”
Sometimes life is bitter to swallow. There are days when I just want to crawl up under His wings (Luke 13:34) or hide in the cleft of a rock and ask Him to cover me. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” (Psalm 91:1) I need physical creation to remind me that God is real. He is alive. He cares about you and me in an extravagant way—like giving us aromas, flavors, and textures and the taste buds to enjoy them.
1 Taste, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste, accessed August 21, 2014
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
© Sue Carlisle 2013. Sue Carlisle is a member of the Ponca tribe and spent much of her youth on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Her passion is to encourage people to look at creation and see our awesome Creator.
