REFLECTIONS

Seasoning

Before throwing meat on the grill or placing a dish in the oven, a little seasoning added to it will make the food more flavorful. Sometimes we marinate it in some kind of sauce, or add a little garlic, or maybe there are other spices you like to add from time to time. But almost always at least a touch of salt is part of the recipe. Seasoning makes a difference. Once added, the food will never be the same again. Perhaps that is the reason that a line from Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson lingers somewhere in my mind.

It reads: I am a part of all that I have met.
            The excerpt lingers there because of the truth I find in it. The experiences we have and the people who pass through our lives transform us into something new. Because of them whatever we were before will never be the same again. Experiences we have and people who cross our paths are seasoning to our lives.

But you are also a special seasoning in the lives of those whose lives you touch. Jesus explained it this way. “You are the salt of the earth,” he proclaimed. Salt transforms the flavor of food, and once introduced, it will never taste the same again. And so it is when you enter someone’s life. You are the salt of the earth. You make a difference to them. They are never the same again.

Seasoning is what Jesus called us to do. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) And seasoning is what we do every day of our lives. It may not be anything you said to them, or anything you did for them. It may be something they saw you do, or how you smiled, or how you made someone else feel. Because of you someone’s life will be changed today. You will add a little seasoning to their life. And if you stop, you no longer make a difference in anything.

Perhaps our food would be good without someone’s seasoning it; but oh, how much better it can be with it! And maybe the lives of others will be good without our seasoning; but oh, how much better it can be when we do! You are part of the recipe. But let us not forget, the source of the seasoning is not really from you or me.

The seasoning is in the light we reflect from the Savior. That’s why he said,

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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