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Jan 16, 2024 06:00am

Jesus and Avocados

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For most of my life, I was scared of the avocado.

It looked weird. It had leathery, bumpy skin. And it was green. For me, that was three strikes, and it was out of my food game.

Then, something strange happened. I got older. In my older age, I saw a dip at a friend’s house with this fruit in it and thought, “Okay, Amber, you can do this. Be open to trying to new things.” So, I tried it.

It. Was. Delicious.

It was love at first bite, and suddenly, I was all in with everything avocado! I had resisted trying it my whole life and had missed out on something I ended up loving.

Funny enough, Psalm 34:8 actually challenges us all to a little taste test of our own – a spiritual taste test. God, through David, urges us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Taste God? Huh?

I get it. It sounds strange to think that we can taste God. This is where the English teacher comes out in me: think of this as a figure of speech. God is calling us to experience Him, just as we would experience food through tasting. As much as I love food, “taste” isn’t my favorite word here. It’s the word “see”. In Hebrew, “see” means to look at, to observe, to gaze, and to look intently.

Interesting.

We are to experience God by gazing at Him intently. This reminds me of the moment Moses spent time with God, getting the Ten Commandments. When he came down the mountain to talk with the people, the people were afraid to talk with him because his face was lit up. Moses’ face was a face that we ladies pay lots of money in skin care products to have: a radiant face. In essence, Moses got a glow-up from God.

Moses didn’t just glance at God during that time – he fixed his eyes upon Him. He talked with Him. He listened to Him. He was in the presence of God.

That, friends, is what this verse is talking about. A perfect example of this would be a moment in Scripture in which a man named Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, and as a result, he did the impossible. This moment just happens to be my favorite story in the whole Bible.

Amid a storm, Peter and his friends, the disciples, were understandably afraid. They were out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, in the dead of night, when a storm brewed up. You see, Jesus wasn’t with them. Jesus – ever the teacher – said He would meet them on the other side of the sea the next day, leaving them alone. As the storm grew, so did their fears that their boat would capsize, and they would drown. Their eyes could not discern Jesus and their hearts welled with worst-case scenarios. Then, they saw something…something that resembled a person. Immediately, they cried out, “Ghost!” But Peter, looking more intently, didn’t see a ghost. Instead, he saw hope in the form of Jesus. It’s at this point in the story that Peter did something that would not be my first response: he asked Jesus to order him out of the boat.

Wait, what? My first inclination would be something like, Jesus, get in this boat! Don’t you know it’s dangerous out there?

But our salty fisherman didn’t; instead, he saw a different opportunity. He saw the impossible…and he wanted it. Still, Peter knew himself well – he knew he couldn’t get out of that boat on his own accord. He needed to be told, rather commanded, to get out of that boat. It would take an act of obedience that would compel him to lift up that foot and place it outside the boat…on water.

Imagine the first step out of that boat, friends. Peter placed it down in faith, keeping his eyes on Jesus. When it didn’t give way to the water, he had faith to put the other foot out. Step by step, he kept his eyes on Jesus. Step by step, he did the impossible.

This, friends, is the type of gazing that God wants – the kind that keeps our eyes fixed on Him, trusting Him every step of the way. When, and only when, Peter took his eyes off of Jesus did he sink. Even then, he experienced the goodness of God as Jesus rescued him immediately. Then, Jesus asks a soul-probing question that can sucker-punch us every time: Why did you doubt me?

*Sigh.* Me too, Peter. Me too.

I want to believe like Peter. I want to have faith like Peter. I want to taste and see like Peter. And when the storms of life threaten to distract me, I want to maintain my gaze on Jesus so intently that I walk away from those times radiant, like Moses.

Something changed in Peter that day. I daresay Peter tasted the Lord and experienced His goodness. Here’s the best part: this taste test wasn’t just for Peter – it’s for all of us. Like my avocado aversion, we can live our whole lives seeing God from a distance, never truly experiencing Him. We can miss out on incredible moments of God because we’re too afraid of letting go of our life preservers and getting out of our safety boats.

Oh, taste Him each and every day, friends. Keep your eyes on Him through prayer, through His word, and through faith. We are meant to be courageously confident believers who say, “Order me to get out of the boat, Jesus” and then actually get out! Life is meant to be lived out there, on the water, one step of faith at a time.

Peter would agree.