The following is my most recent addition to the Buffalo Center Tribune. To God be ALL glory!

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I went for a combine ride last week. [Yawn] – that is what I can hear many of you doing right now, along with saying, “Big deal”. Well for me it was a big deal, for this was my first time in a combine. That’s right, I’m fifty years old and grew up in a small farming town in west central Minnesota, but I had never ridden in a combine. I have seen my share of farm machinery in action. I have spoken with and know my share of farmers. I have heard the stories. I am acquainted with the ebbs and flows of the farming community. Rural life is not foreign to me, just the actual riding of the equipment, but now I have gotten a sip. And that sip was enough to fill me with awe. It was not just the fancy combine that literally drove itself, or that fancy tech that knows where we’ve been and what needs to be completed, along with moisture percentages and yield rates. What captivated me was listening to my “chauffer” talk about his passion for farming. I saw and heard his joy for this vocation. He loves his job. And there are so many people out there that just do not understand who farmers are, what they do and what they mean for all of us. I am not saying that I fully understand now; that I could drop my current vocation and become a farmer tomorrow, but with that sip I received last week, I am motivated even more than ever to share the awe that I experienced and learn more myself.

But there is something else that I have sipped that has filled me with more awe – something I want to share with you now.

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
[Psalm 34:8-10]

You see, just one little taste or sip of the grace of God through Jesus Christ, will open your eyes to a kingdom that is beyond words. It will reveal an awe that will blow you away. Just one little taste and one little look will change you forever. Try it, you will not regret it. For you see, just as one short ride in a combine showed me a brand-new world; giving me a desire to learn more, tasting and seeing God’s grace for sinners will change you or enliven you. It will fill you with awe and give you an appetite to taste more.

And so, taste and see that the Lord is Good. Taste and see and be reminded. Taste and see a brand-new life. Taste and see and know you are and will always be loved. Taste and see and be forever filled. To God be the glory through Jesus Christ. Amen.