13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
Matthew 5:13
Dear God, Matthew follows up the Beatitudes with this little metaphor. Yeah, I guess this is really more of a metaphor of Jesus than it is a parable, but I think I’ll go with it anyway. He’s making a point.
So what does salt do? It preserves in an era when preservation was difficult and refrigeration non-existent. And when I was a camp counselor, we used to say at mealtime that salt made everything taste better. So what does it look like for me to be salty? What does it look like when I’ve lost my saltiness?
I think the best thing I can do after loving you with all my heart soul and strength, is to love my neighbor by being salty. Adding goodness to them. Adding quality to their lives. Being a solution to their problem. Now that I think about it, salt is only useful when it combines itself with something else. It isn’t the nourishment. It has some nutritional value in that we need to replace sodium in our bodies, but it needs other foods to be good and the other food needs it as well. If I just try to be salt in isolation, I will never be useful and no one will want me. But if I allow myself to partner with something/someone else, I can be part of your presence in this world.
Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, tomorrow’s parable will be the Parable of the Lamp. How I am to shine for you. But right now, I want to focus on being a functional part of your plan. You guide me. You cover me. You make me better and salty so that I might be your ambassador into the world. Please help me to be useful.
I pray this in the name of the one, Triune God,
Amen
Emails to God 