Perfectly Seasoned

Colossians 4:6 -- "Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

image: Siegfried Modola - Rueters/National Geographic

The ache settled in to my lower back and my eyes began to water with each smooth glide of my favorite kitchen knife. The onions get me every time. But I savored the aroma of every vegetable as I chopped and placed the piles of green, orange, and white into the large pot on the stove. In no time at all - the entire house filled up with the smell of fresh, home-made chicken soup.

One of my very favorite things to do - is cook. There is just something so satisfying about doing all the prep work, standing vigilant over the stove top, and watching parts and pieces of things come together to make the perfect dish.

On the other hand, there is nothing so disappointing in the kitchen as to get to the end of all that work only to find out that the dish over which you just spent two hours didn't work out and is not edible.

One of the simplest ingredients that can lead to either victory or defeat when it comes to cooking - is salt. It's taken me a number of years to get the salt just right in my chicken soup. The first few times I tried my own recipe there wasn't enough salt - and the meal found my family constantly reaching for the little fat chef salt shaker that stands guard over my kitchen counter. But when the perfect ratio was finally all worked out - there was nothing quite like the taste of the wonderful blend of celery, rosemary, white onion, and pulled chicken.

It's true - salt can make or break a meal. But, as I recently discovered - it can also make or break a people.

Deep in the Afar region of the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, a camel caravan has been making the long hot journey from the desert basin into the salt market for hundreds of years. Left over from a sea that is no more - giant salt beds provide the Afar People with a livelihood. And just as in ancient Rome, this precious commodity has been used as a form of currency for the Afar - and is still considered to be their most valuable resource.

image of an emole [salt brick] ready for market: Siegfried Modola

From this humble mineral - comes the true spice of life. Long has it been considered priceless. And in one instance underneath the Great Lakes in Michigan - when an entrepreneur decided to drill for oil but instead discovered one of the largest stores of natural salt in the world - he was not disappointed. He let go of his dreams to be an oil tycoon and clung fast to his large mine of salt.

Yes - it IS that valuable. All the way from the Danakil Depression, to Maine, to right in your own kitchen cabinet - salt is a highly prized commodity.

Doing a little research on the subject made me marvel that salt is generously sprinkled through out the Bible. It's used in verse 6 of Colossians chapter 4 to encourage us to be mindful of how we use our words.

What a unique way to tell people to watch their language.

What if we really DID season or phrases with grace? There is a beautiful balance in the mixing of flavors and seasonings when it comes to cooking and our use of salt in the kitchen. If we get the combination just right - the meal we prepare is fit for everyone.

image: newsfeeid.blogspot.com

I love that in this verse we are told that - if we season our conversations just right - we can talk to anyone.

Do you know what that means?

Essentially - our words are valuable. When compared to the fact that salt is so highly prized and appreciated around the world - it brings home the importance that Paul should use salt in his own words. A reminder that what we say can be so very, very priceless.

..... or - it can really, really ruin things.

Something to think about .....