We were getting ready to practice the opening song for our friends’ wedding. It was composed for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, a sweet, simple melody: “O taste and see how gracious the Lord is. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” You can listen to one version here.
Before we started, our director told us to get out our pencils and write across the top of our sheet music: Taste the graciousness. My cousin sang the soprano solo, soaring way up there so high, I don’t know how she does it. The song was over way too soon to suit me, but I keep mulling the words. Taste the graciousness. Blessed, trusteth, Him.
You could say Taste His grace but I like graciousness because it means the focus is on God’s essence more than on what He does or gives. I think about what it means to taste, and I want to it be the shape of my life–to savor, enjoy, affirm the goodness. This is not automatic behavior for someone like me who complains quickly and is constantly bumping into the reality of living on this side of Eden. Things are not as they should be, BUT GRACIOUSNESS IS ALL AROUND US! It takes my breath away. We should all stop and stare at the wonder of it all. The telling of it is like counting the pearls on a string or drops of dew on a blade of grass or tear drops on a cheek.
The billows of wildflowers lining the roads.
Laughter with a child.
Phrases of songs that replay themselves in my head, healing and comforting.
Simple food with a friend.
I wondered a little why David wrote that verse with the two phrases that don’t seem to have much connection with each other. “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” What does tasting have to do with trusting?
Then I remembered how Larry Crabb wrote in Inside Out: “Desire much and pray for much but demand nothing. To trust God is to demand nothing.” Tasting is savoring, keeping an open, soft heart, not demanding.
Picking a few daisies, not taking an armful.
Laughing with friends, not insisting on always laughing.
Savoring musical moments, not demanding a concert every week. Or a feast every day.
To taste and acknowledge the graciousness means trusting God for the places that still ache. To affirm the good things and trust God with the lacks and empty spaces and fractures, demanding nothing.
Those are high words to reach for, but I want it written across the top of my life: taste the graciousness!
Tis a Gift to Receive 
Beautifully said, and I believe in the graciousness of each moment.
And you live that way too, Sharon!
Tasting is savoring, keeping an open, soft heart, not demanding.
Picking a few daisies, not taking an armful.
Laughing with friends, not insisting on always laughing.
Savoring musical moments, not demanding a concert every week. Or a feast every day.
Thank you.
Now I miss you.
May today’s taste be sweet and sustaining for you.
Yesterday a dear friend texted me a simple photo of wildflowers lining her country road. And today your post points my thoughts to “wildflowers lining the roads”…and other evidences of His graciousness on display all around…if we remember and choose to recognize them as such. Thank you!
And your final pic is that of honey dripping off of the spoon! đŸ™‚ Methinks this is a befitting pic for such a sublime challenge to enjoying His goodness every day. Good thoughts!