Open wide your mouth, and I will fill  it. Psalm  81:10

Ah, morning coffee! 

For several months  I  cut  out  coffee because of  sleep problems at night and substituted hot tea instead. However with all deference to the Brits, etc., I just am not a tea drinker. In my German family the morning brew was instant decaffeinated Sanka coffee liberally laced with sugar and milk.  I only had tea when I was  sick – and bland  chamomile tea at that.  Whenever company came, we had Bohnenkafee, “real” coffee  percolated, boiled  and brewed by my mother to the  texture of molasses along with a slice of cake. I don’t remember anyone complaining of  insomnia from too much caffeine.  And so slowly but surely I’ve  put aside my morning  English Breakfast and  grab a fully loaded French roast K cup instead. The hot, bittersweet, dark taste of coffee in my favorite mug – no teensy porcelain tea cup here – is the dawn elixer which gets me going.  

Coffee is the very first thing I taste in the morning  long before  a slice of toast with jam or cereal or the occasional bacon  and eggs.  That got me to thinking about our senses of taste: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and  a fifth , savory. What incredible complexity those five senses create in our mouths when we eat or drink. How boring  life would be if we had  only one sense of taste (say sour?). Or none at all?  Chefs understand the subtleties of the tongue when they plan a gourmet meal;  Madison Avenue manipulates our cravings with  countless taste variations  packaged in  snack and beverage aisles.

Taste is  wired into humans within  the womb  until the last breath. The tongue has specific taste sensors  strategically placed  around it so we can taste things which are different, which appeal or repel or which can warn of danger, like gall  …or hemlock. Taste is another component of God’s perfectly designed human body. It’s a daily miracle which we mostly take for granted. Whenever  I visit residents at the care center, many can’t walk or communicate  but they love their  daily ice cream.  Their eyes, ears and limbs may fail but  their taste, especially for sweets  is not diminished. 

Words associated with taste often describe emotions and attitudes. We recall a memory that is bittersweet, a relationship that soured,  savoring a a happy  experience, becoming  embittered  or the sting of salt in a wound.  God’s Word is filled with “tasting” our relationship with Him  as if to test His character.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!  Psalm 119:103

The invitation is to try God out, to take a little sip and discover His honeyed goodness and fullness.  Along with our human tastes, God has put within us the craving for Himself alone. He alone can satisfy us as He’s always done. Psalm 81 reminded the Israelites that …

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt

…and that He would continue to fill their mouths. He will not do so unless we open our mouths, our hearts  to Him first, to acknowledge Him as Lord, Provider and Holy Satisfaction.

Genesis 1:29 speaks of all the good things God  intended for Adam and Eve in the  Garden:

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

But our first parents were not satisfied with God, with all that  God offered  to them. Genesis 3 tells  the familiar story of  Satan’s deception and  human rebellion.

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

The forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge is Eve’s first recorded  taste apart from God in the Bible.  Ever since the poison of pride continues to separate us from our God in countless deceptions, seeking and tasting  other gods. It is only by faith  in Jesus that the honey  of God’s  goodness is restored to us.

Which leaves me to ask.  What shall our first taste every morning be? What is in our early morning  coffee cup?