The Proof is in the - Promise

I love food.  I love eating it, cooking it, and even reading about it.  My grandmother, Mama Julia, loved cooking too.  My grandparents visited us from Florida every summer when I was young and Mama Julia always took charge of the cooking when in our home.  She gave my mother a deserved break.

I remember one warm day helping her prepare a picnic lunch to take to the beach.  When the blankets, towels and food basket were ready and everyone was getting into the car I noticed Mama Julia was not going.
     "Are you going to the beach," I asked?
     "No mijita, (little daughter), everyone will be very hungry when they get back from the beach so I am going to get their supper ready."  I did't know what to do, I loved cooking with my grandmother, but I loved the beach.
     "Mama, I will stay with you and help you cook," I said.
     "Sure, mamita, you can stay with me."

We spent what seemed like hours cooking together that day.  Using my nick name she said,
     "Look, Judy, when you make the beans you must always saute the onion and pepper first. Never add it in afterwards."  Or when stirring the natilla was tiresome, she said,
     "Lets take turns, I'll stir it for five minutes and you stir it for two."  Mama Julia was always teaching me about food.  She told me that if you know what is put into the pot you don't even have to taste it to know if will be good. She disagreed with the old adage the proof is in the pudding.  For her the proof was in the pot.

Through the years I have experimented with recipes. I read cookbooks like literature.  And even though, Mama Julia never used a cookbook, her sentiment that it is what goes into the pot that determines whether it will be a good dish or not, is true.  After years of reading cookbooks, I don't have to actually make a recipe to know if it will be delicious. God has enabled me to read and know what it will taste like.

Once again that principle was brought to my view.  As I claimed a promise today, I remembered, I dont have to taste the results to know that the Lord's answer will yield good fruit.  It is the love and power He has put into the promise that determines the result.

And so with hope and gratitude I claim His promise:
 
"Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders...and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me...thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children...I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." Isaiah 49:22 -26