I worked as an orderly at a nursing home when I was a teenager, and I met a woman there named Minnie.

Minnie had a great personality, she was fun-loving, and was a joy to care for.

Numerous times during the day, I would be called to come and help the nurse’s aide move Minnie from her bed to her chair and back again.

Minnie was pretty chubby, “fluffy,” and had only one leg so she couldn’t help much in the transfer. But she made our job easier by being lighthearted and telling jokes along the way, from chair to bed, from bed to chair.

She had some interesting tastes in her special treats, too.

Minnie always had a supply of Horehound Drops and Pickled Pig’s Feet in her room.

She would order them from a shop in town and they would deliver them to her.

Minnie got me to taste her favorite food items one day.

They tasted different than anything I had ever had up to that point in my life, but I thought they were kind of good.

The fact that I tasted her Horehound Drops and Pickled Pig’s Feet and didn’t spit them back out made Minnie happy… She smiled and laughed… And that made me happy. And then I smiled and laughed.

I have enjoyed many different taste-treats over the years.

Growing up in a predominantly Scandinavian community in North Dakota, I had my share of interesting things to eat.

I have always enjoyed blood sausage.

It is exactly what the name implies, sausage made from blood; cow’s blood, if I remember right.

My mother would fry it in butter, and then my brothers and I would devour piece after piece. Not my sisters though.

Another family favorite was milk dumplings: big, thick drop dumplings boiled in milk.

My mother’s second husband, Archie (not a Scandinavian), was not a connoisseur of Norwegian delights. He refused to eat either blood sausage or milk dumplings.

Archie said there was absolutely no nutritional value in those things, and he refused to eat them.

But, I loved milk dumplings and blood sausage. I would love to have some today.

Lutefisk and lefse is another Norwegian favorite that we enjoyed, especially the lefse.

Lutefisk is whitefish that has been soaked in lye. It has a real strong odor, which turns many people off. I was one of them.

I tried it several times, but I’m not a big fan of lutefisk.

Lefse on the other hand I love to this day. My sister, Cindi, and a group of her friends make it just about every year.

Cindi sends me lefse for Christmas. I’m the only one in my Tennessee family who will eat it.

Lefse is a Norwegian flatbread, kind of like a large tortilla, made from potatoes.

My mother and her sisters would make it every fall so we would have plenty for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We would spread butter on it and then sprinkle sugar over that and roll it up and eat it, piece after piece.

Yummmmm!

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed trying different types of foods

I really enjoy sushi, something my wife won’t even try.

When I eat in a Japanese restaurant, I usually order squid salad, and of course Lynn won’t try that either.

I usually eat Japanese food on my own, or with daring friends.

We all have different tastes in food.

Some folks like hot, spicy foods; some like sweet foods; some like salty foods; some like sweet and savory; and some like everything fried.

I read somewhere that each one of us has between 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds on our tongues; and each one of those little things has a different job.

We are born with the ability to taste.

Several verses in the Book of Psalms make reference to our ability to taste in relation to our contact with God and the words of Holy Scripture.

Psalm 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him.”

Tasting and seeing that God is good is implying that we need to give God a chance to prove how good He is.

A common refrain that I hear quite often from Christian people is, “God is good…All the time… and…all the time God is good.”

Those of us who have tasted of the things of God know that He is good…all the time.

Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are God’s words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

God wants us to taste and see how good He is.

He wants us to taste and see how good His Word is.

He wants to prove Himself to each of us.

Believe me, God is good…all the time!

Taste and see!