There’s nothing like a fresh, cold snow cone on a hot, Texas day. I’m not talking about those snow cones with pre-made syrup. A good snow cone — the kind I could eat ten of — has that homemade, freshly squeezed juice that fills the cup to the brim and, if you’re lucky, is stuffed full of frozen vanilla custard. Delicious.
There’s a local snow cone food truck down the street from us that has become our go-to place for what we call celebratory snow cones. When something special or celebration-worthy happens in our family, we head down to Casey’s and treat ourselves to one big snow cone that we can all share together.
Our last trip was particularly sweet for our family as we celebrated our littler toddler having a good night’s sleep. I know, I know. That might sound a bit minuscule at first, but for our little guy, who has been having a rough season of bad dreams and nightly pains, a good night’s sleep is a rarity. So, it was a cause for celebration.
Celebration Worthy
The delicious mango snow cone that we were all enjoying certainly was sweet, but the moment we were celebrating was even sweeter.
We weren’t just going out to indulge a craving or to find relief from the hot summer sun. We were gathering together around a special food to thank God for the great work He had done in our son’s life.
Now, truth be told, these sorts of celebrations are a big part of my culture and my husband’s. I’m an East Indian gal, and Aaron is Latino. In both of our cultures, we value celebrating things both big and small, and food always plays a big role. Whether we are thanking God for someone’s birthday or just celebrating the small wins, we party hard and we eat hard.
In this way, we don’t just celebrate the special moments in our life, we savor them.
A Divine Call To Taste
Savoring the highs of the everyday are not just cultural. They are also an integral part of the life of a believer. God calls us to savor Him, first and foremost. In Psalm 34:8, the Psalmist declares, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” We are to savor God and His great deeds. We are to relish in the moment and dwell on His greatness. We are to draw near to Him and find satisfaction in Him, and implicit in this declaration to savor God Himself is also a call to savor what God has done in our lives.
For my family, the way we savor Christ in the everyday is through celebrations with food.
There’s just something about how the delight of the tongue stirs up the affections of the heart. Even as I write these words, my mouth is salivating all over again for that mango custard snow cone. The joy of those wonderful memories from our family trip continue to remind me of what had happened the night before. In truth, I don’t think I will ever forget the reason for our celebration or our joy in Christ. That’s what celebrating with food does for us.
Savoring What God Has Done
So it didn’t matter that day that sweat was already pouring down our faces. It didn’t matter that we were still slightly sleep-deprived and our bodies were still weary from a whole week of rough nights. The only thought on our minds was how good and deep a sleep our son had the night before, and by extension, the good and deep sleep that my husband and I had enjoyed too.
Our spoons and straws flew in different directions as we happily devoured that most-amazing snow cone. Our pants inevitably became stained with wonderful splotches of orange. Our fingers and mouths were sticky. Yet, all the while, we were intentionally verbalizing to our son how great our God is, how much we have to thank Him for good rest, and how He is and always will be our great Comforter and Provider. This peaceful night of sleep was a special moment in the life of our whole family, and we just had to stop and celebrate it by savoring what God had done.
May we savor God and His great deeds in the little moments of our everyday Click To TweetDr. Reyes originally published this post with (in)courage. You can read the original post here.
