Chicken Noodle Soup For The Soul

I grew up on Mom’s good home made meals and I would never choose prepackaged over homemade normally. Kraft dinner has no appeal to me whatsoever. But I have a strong affinity for Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. Just the aroma and I instantly feel better.

When I was 16, a friend and I decided to hitchhike out west. I know, you’ve heard it all before, and yes, we ended up broke, hungry and far from home. After going without food for a couple of days, we managed to make it to Humboldt, Saskatchewan, where a sister to a cousin’s wife lived with her husband. As ‘luck’ would have it, they were away for the weekend. Left without a lot of options we hunkered down in the garage. After what seemed like an eternity, the lady in the house next door spotted us. A little apprehensive at first, she quickly realized we were pretty harmless and took pity on us, inviting us into her home where she fed us. And I’m sure you guessed it, after a couple of days without anything to eat, we had Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. Isn’t it amazing that something can actually taste better because of a memory!

It’s called association, and it works both ways. It was a long time before I was able to enjoy the taste of beet greens again after finding half of a large blow fly in my mouth years ago during a big feed of them. It’s an important part of how we understand things; how they are connected to everything else in our memories. We don’t just understand, we relate.

In thinking of this, I am caused to wonder how different people think about God. Since God Himself is a transcendent being, how would most people have a knowledge of Him? It’s largely by association. And to what do people associate God? Most likely it is all of us who claim to know Him and speak His name. All of this helps me to understand how often we have an uphill battle when we want to get out the Good News. We desperately want people to make a connection with God, but so often the connection that people make isn’t leaving them with a very good taste in their mouths.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:13-16