Taste and Experience

JUNE 22 2026 Taste and Experience

Yesterday was the beginning of summer and also the longest day of the year. Plus it was Father's Day. I remember Dad. He passed away 19 years ago. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I remember I was about 3 years old and Dad took my brother and I to the root beer joint. A&W's. It was an old fashioned drive in restaurant. You parked your car under a wooden awning and the young waitress would come out to take your order. Allen and Wright. That's what the A&W stands for. I didn't know that until just now when I googled it. It started in Lodi, CA in 1919. One of the first franchise restaurants in America. Well during the summer of 1960 in Joliet, Illinois I tasted my first root beer. I have memories like that going back to childhood. Taste is one of our most powerful memory triggers, along with our sense of smell. To this day I don't believe I've ever tasted a drink or a flavor that has matched the deliciousness of that root beer that day. I suppose that's why it's remained such a powerful memory. I imagine it was the fact that it was a hot day and we were hungry and thirsty little boys and that the ice cold mug of root beer had probably been delivered fresh that day. Who knows? But that flavor has never quite been matched. At least not in my mind. So the mind has something to do with it doesn't it? I wanted my Dad to tell me that we could live off that root beer for the rest of our lives if we wanted to. Do you remember? What is it you remember? I also remember Dad taking me and my brother to the zoo in Brookfield, Illinois when we were about that same age. I think it might've been the next summer in 1961 when he took us to the zoo. We would've been 3 and 4 then. But on the way back to our home in Joliet, Dad stopped at a restaurant. Another drive in place. But I think Dad went into the restaurant to order and then brought out the goodies. It was a White Castle. White Castle was founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1921. So 40 years later, somewhere near Chicago, Illinois 2 young boys got their first taste of a slider. I'll never forget that hamburger either. I don't know what they put in their burgers back then, but I became an instant fan of White Castle. There's a verse that says taste and see that the Lord is good. Now how can you "see" a flavor? Because the word "see" in this context means to experience. We don't put our tongue on God. He's invisible and not made of any material substance. So "taste" in this sense would mean to try or to test. When we see an article of clothing we don't like we say "it's not to my taste." But why don't you try the Lord and see if he's to your liking? Hebrews says you not only have to know there's a God but you have to know that he's good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. He's a good God. I could've lived on root beer and hamburgers as a little boy, but it might not have been good for me. I had to have my vegetables and onions too. I was a growing boy. Mom and Dad didn't want me living on fat, salt, and sugar. It's what's called a balanced diet. I had to have things I didn't find delicious to balance out what my body needed to grow on. And in some way, eating those vegetables made the good stuff taste even better. Isn't life funny that way? Yin and Yang, good and evil, sweet and bitter. Light and darkness. I've had root beer and sliders since that first time, but it's never quite matched those first tastes that I remember. Like how that 1st cigarette hits you after not smoking for a week. By the time you've had your 5th cigarette it doesn't feel the same. I remember when I smoked that I was just smoking to relieve the craving for more nicotine. That's all. If you finally do what the bible says to do, and you taste of the Lord and you find out that he's good, you'll want more. I assure you. Nothing else quite compares to knowing that I'm going to heaven. I don't have to be afraid. I can have peace. In heaven I'm sure, I'm convinced that everything will taste like that first root beer and that first slider. And I'll be able to have both whenever I want them and never have to taste beans again. Throw in some ice cream and we'll have a feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb.