God's Special Saltshakers
Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Some people act as if they can’t survive a meal without putting a lot of salt on their food. Whether it is a hamburger, a dish of oatmeal, or a spicy pizza covered with anchovies, they look around for the shaker. To them, a meal is unbearable without a good dosing of salt. The world is unbearable without a good dosing of God’s salt.
Let’s face it. The world, as beautiful and bountiful as it is, has much to be desired. We brag about America as the land of the free, the home of the brave, spacious skies, purple mountains, and fields filled with amber waves of grain. From sea to sea it has the best of everything. And that’s the story that gets out to people of other countries who might find themselves unhappy. So, they come here as if they are walking through the pearly gates into heaven. This is a great land, most of us will agree on that, but let’s face it. It could be much better. The whole world still needs something. What it needs is a good dose of heavenly salt. And where do we find that? In people, God hopes.
God hopes to make people into his very own special saltshakers. He wants to open us up, pour his Son into us, and have him be shaken out on everything and everybody everywhere we go. People who become Christ-like give flavor to the world, a heavenly flavor it so desperately needs. “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus said. But what if the salt goes flat? How can you restore its flavor? Then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
We wouldn’t want that to happen to us, would we? Shall we let God fill us with the likeness of Christ? Let’s allow him to make us into his very own little saltshakers.
