When Life is Bitter, There's Still Hope for Sweeter.
Life can be so bitter just before something sweet and totally amazing comes your way. Let’s take a look at one of my favorite aspects of European culinary culture- the apéritif (a word derived from the Latin term aperire, “to open”). It’s the original appetizer but in liquid form and…a bit bitter. (Yes, it’s alcohol which I realize may make me blasphemous to some, but God speaks to me through all things in life.) An apéritif is sipped before your meal to “open” your appetite. According to an article in The Daily Meal, apéritifs “stimulate the appetite, relax the diner, and prep the digestive tract for the coming meal.”
When I wrote Heaven’s Kitchen, I did deep research on the art of preparing meals. It’s one of the reasons I traveled to Italy in 2019 …(that and I was single on Valentine’s Day and I wanted to romance myself with a trip to the most romantic place on earth). The Italian aperitivo is a daily part of life and you’ll find many people engaging in this ritual in the late afternoon hours The aperitvo seen in my hand is a classic Aperol Spritz, a refreshing combo of aperol (the apéritif), prosecco, and a splash of club soda over ice. Pair it with some yummy appetizers and you, my friend, are engaging in a beautiful Italian tradition. As if I needed another reason to love Italy- they drink and eat just to prepare to eat and drink some more.
In my book, I compare waiting for an answered prayer to sitting at a table waiting for a long-anticipated meal. As I continue to wait for prayers to be answered, I find myself kind of at the “aperitivi” stage of life. I find joy in it but it’s a little bitter at times. I want to travel again, meet new people, find love- eventually. I feel stuck lately, especially in my walk with God. That’s me being fully transparent and saying, “It’s hard to praise Jesus when you feel like He’s forgotten you were sitting at the table…alone no less.” I hope I can reread this one day and see that God was still faithful even when I was faithless. And if you’ve read this far, I hope you know it’s okay to wrestle with your faith. The journey can be filled with bitter waters at times. The Israelites were met with them on their wilderness journey, but God turned their waters sweet.
They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah. The people grumbled to Moses, “What are we going to drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he threw it into the water, the water became drinkable. Exodus 15:23-25
God loves to use trees to makes statements on His faithfulness. Hmm. Anyways, may God give you sweeter and less bitter. “Cin cin!” to that.
