HOT DOGS & ICE CREAM

                                                            Hot Dogs & Ice Cream

One of the positive things about getting old is the storage of a vast array of memories. On the negative is an accumulation of aches and pains! As my physiotherapist worked on my lower back, I asked ‘What does the mention of hot dogs bring to mind?’ ‘The ball game’. ‘Ice cream?’ ‘The beach!’ So there you have it. Hot dogs and ice cream conjure up memories of ball games and beaches, and, for good alliteration, let’s add in boardwalks.

We associate hot dogs and ice cream with entertainment, relaxation, what we call recreation. These might also be called ‘comfort foods’, of which part of the ‘comfort’ may be more than just in the ‘sugar hit’ but in their associated memories. Thus, eating hot dogs and ice cream becomes a form of escapism, a temporary distraction, a relief from all of life’s aches and pains. Here Christians and non-Christians alike relate. However, for the Christian, hot dogs and ice cream are also reminders of the goodness of God, the ‘God, who comforts the downcast’ (2 Cor. 7:6). Indeed, the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter. As the Paraclete, He gets alongside the Christian and consoles us as our Advocate, our Counsellor.

So, we move from seeking solace in hot dogs and ice cream to ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him’ (Psa. 34:8). What might hold back a non-Christian from seeking refuge in God not food? Well, like fungus on a hot dog or mouldy ice cream, the look and smell would rightly be off-putting. Non-Christians view Christianity and Christ’s gospel as something that kills when ingested. ‘For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life’ (2 Cor. 2:15-16a). Thus, they refuse to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ preferring the temporary comfort of hot dogs and ice cream to the eternal life from the Bread of Heaven.

God, i.e., the triune God, promises Christians that He ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain’ (Rev. 21:4). Wow! No need for trips to the physiotherapist. No need for comfort foods. Yes, this is all in the future for the Christian, but just as hot dogs and ice cream may comfort us by reminding us of the ball game, the beach, and the boardwalk, those bygone happy times, so tasting the LORD causes Christians to remember His sure promises for the happy future, the bliss forever place.

Reading God’s Word is a ‘sugar hit’ for the Christian. ‘How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!’ (Psa. 119:103), like the opening line of the old hymn, ‘Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!’ (Alstyne). A friend told me that his old and senile mother tried to eat the Bible page by page! Some might say that there’s as much nutritional value in eating the Bible as in eating hot dogs and ice cream! However, even in her senility my friend’s elderly Christian mother knew the value of God’s Word.

As I grow older and my aches and pains more abundant, as did Job before me, I long for the future resurrection, ‘For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me’ (Job 19:23-27).