Susandoodles

Here it is the third week of Advent and the last week to do all those holiday chores of which baking is probably my favorite.  Baking those cookies, breads, and meals makes the season not to mention how delightful the house smells.

This week Matt Rawle focuses on the taste of Christmas as one more way to experience Christmas.  I cannot separate the taste from the experience of cooking and the scents that fill the house.

One of Rawle’s first questions really triggers my connection with Christmas:  Do you have that one thing that makes it finally feel like Christmas is around the corner?

Certainly there is more than one–such as the scent of cedar from the trees we used to cut in our woods.  Then there is the smell of a wood fire, not to mention the frosty scent of snow.  But let the tray of chocolate macaroons start baking and I know it is Christmas.

Food is central to our well-being and as we consider how central it is to the holiday and to our hospitality, Rawle draws on that commonality to consider this normal part of our human experience during Advent.  He asks: 

• Have you ever thought about Mary nursing baby Jesus, giving him his first meal?
• How does this highlight the vulnerability God takes on in the Incarnation?
• Do you think Jesus had a favorite food?
• What does it say about God that Jesus lived in a particular time and place, including characteristic flavors, dishes, and experiences of food?

I had to admit, I had not really thought of such questions.  My focus on the taste of Christmas was what I grew up experiencing here in the Midwest of the United States.  We followed the traditions of our families, the main courses, the side dishes, and the Christmas dessert spread.

As I continued through Rawle’s reflection on the taste of the Christmas experience, I can see an entirely different level of knowing the Christmas story.  These are his main points:

• Taste is a gift.  Food doesn’t have to taste good, but it does, and therefore taste reminds us of grace. 
• Mary offered her body as nourishment to the One who, some thirty years later, would offer his body for ours in the breaking of the bread [the first communion]. 
• When reading Scripture patiently, letting the different flavors dance with and against each other, we finally begin to understand Scripture’s depth; what a feast it is!
• Cooking takes time, and it’s supposed to.  When we slow down, when we become vulnerable by waiting, we are making room in our souls for desire.

Each point seems so separate from each other one, but each one can cause us to stop and think about experiencing Christmas differently.  

I know my own Advent is filled with different tastes.  And these tastes have changed since childhood, through adulthood, parenthood, and now into the retirement years.  

I know that I have not spent much time considering the dietary needs of a baby Jesus, a toddler Jesus, a teen Jesus, nor the adult Jesus.  Now I have slowed down enough to think about it and even add to the differences of the diet I have as compared to the ancient Mediterranean diet of Jesus’ time.  

I know that the organic sense of taste is one thing, but I also have learned that I hunger for scripture.  I just never thought how to “taste” scripture.  Slowing down while reading is a skill to fully absorb the nourishment of the Word.  

I know that slowing down is so important to fully taste our foods, but it is a skill we need to develop to taste our earthly experience, too.  And observing Advent as a season filled with experiences, slows us down and allows us to refocus on the Christmas experience.

After reading Rawle’s devotions these past few weeks, I realize that I am slowing down and beginning to really absorb the experience of Christmas.  I have heard the lyrics of one Christmas carol repeatedly while reading.  Do you remember this one?

Said the night wind to the little lamb,

Do you see what I see

Way up in the sky, little lamb,

Do you see what I see

A star, a star, dancing in the night

With a tail as big as a kite

With a tail as big as a kite

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,

Do you hear what I hear

Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,

Do you hear what I hear

A song, a song, high above the trees

With a voice as big as the sea

With a voice as big as the sea

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,

Do you know what I know

In your palace warm, mighty king,

Do you know what I know

A Child, a Child shivers in the cold

Let us bring Him sliver and goldLet us bring Him silver and gold

Said the king to the people everywhere,

Listen to what I say

Pray for peace, people everywhere! 

List to what I say

The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night

He will bring us goodness and light.  He will bring us goodness and light.

Advent is a time of anticipation, hope, and expectation, as Rawle outlined in the first week.  Advent is a time to fully experience Christmas even though we have a tendency to fill the weeks with too many activities, too much spending, too many secular trappings.  Slow down.  Read scripture.  Reflect.  Let all of your being experience Christmas—sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.