Delicous and Nutritious!

If all goes as planned, when you read this little collection of thoughts I will be in Togo, West Africa. It's the end, we believe, of an adventure that started seven years ago, and it's been such a treat to be part of the plan! Besides the obvious blessings of seeing God at work in the lives of teachers and children across the world and the delight of getting to know some of our missionaries better, one thing I have really enjoyed is the delicious fruit that is in season in Togo during the months of June and July.

You just have not tasted good pineapple until you've enjoyed the sweet, almost white, fruit of West Africa. Possibly it's that good in other tropical places, but I've not been anywhere else where it's so. I have also come to appreciate a good, ripe mango, and having them together, cut up with a little banana fresh off the tree is just a piece of heaven!

Isn't it wonderful that these things that are so good for us taste delicious as well? I have on my refrigerator two lists of foods that are supposed to be effective for special health concerns. One is a list of cancer-fighting foods, and the other is a list of foods that keep the brain healthy. Guess what's on the top of both lists. Go ahead, guess. . . . Berries! Isn't that fabulous? Berries are so delicious, and they also happen to be very good for us.

A couple of years ago, Jane Martin gave me some raspberry canes that I planted in a corner of my back yard. I happen to really love raspberries. It is a singular delight of my summer days to go outside in the morning and pick a handful of raspberries to put into my bowl of Rice Krispies. Now and then while I'm picking the berries, I think of how very good God is to give us such wonderful nutritious food that also tastes amazing. He didn't have to make it that way.

There are numerous verses that speak of God's goodness, but the one I'm thinking of now is I Timothy 6:17--"Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy." Amen.