Have you tried dry land fish? A ginseng-hunting friend of mine in Tennessee was always going on about this tasty treat. Dry land fish, otherwise known as morchella (or morels), a genus of the fungus family, are mushroom-colored and remind me of tiny pale pine trees.
I seldom eat mushrooms by themselves, but they augment burgers and steaks very nicely. Though my old buddy always raved about dry land fish, I think they tasted pretty much like most other mushrooms.
What is a delicacy, anyway? Relative to food, it’s something that tastes very good, but also has the meaning of being rare, hard to find. As I’m writing this, a bowl of mixed nuts is open at my desk. There are a few pistachios mingled among the rest of the nuts. Are they a delicacy because they taste good, but I must dig through the container to find them?
Is the Bible a delicacy? It, after all, is the message from the One and Only True and Living God. It also is declared to be figuratively delicious. “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 NKJV).
However, in terms of rareness, over one hundred million copies of it are sold every year. A complete copy, containing the old and new testaments can be purchased brand new for a couple of dollars. I have had a hand in giving away thousands in foreign countries and our own prisons.
We’re always told how wonderfully delicious caviar is, but when I see a picture of the dark goop made from fish eggs, I’m not so sure. Isn’t taste like beauty, in the eyes of the beholder? How many places in our little town of King can you buy a hamburger? At least ten? Why so many? It’s the old supply and demand principle. Demand means desire, desire, desire
Desire is the key in utilizing the grand gift from God of His word. It is said of those words, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold” (Ps. 19:10). “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97). The righteous man’s “delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2).
If modern polls are right, people may be buying Bibles, but they’re not reading them. What gives? Is just having a Bible, your ticket into Heaven? Can we add to the excuses people will give to God when He bars them at the gate, “But Lord, I own a Bible!”?
Again, desire is the key. Immerse yourself into the pages of the awe-inspiring word that can save your soul (Romans 1:16). Delight in it completely. It’s not just the double burger; it’s the ice cream dessert, too.
Jeff Greene, minister for the South Stokes Church of Christ