Gingerly Snack

Gingerly Snack

She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious. . . . So she took some of the fruit and ate it.

Genesis 3:6

I had just finished lugging the last of the Christmas decorations down the stairs when the doorbell rang. I opened the door in time to wave good-bye to the UPS man and drag a big box into the house. During the holiday season my husband received numerous gifts from service companies, and the return address confirmed that this was one of those.

Often the gifts were food, and because I was famished from my busy morning, I tore into the box. It was filled with delicacies, but the label that caught my attention had “Wasabi Gingered Pecans” written on it. I loved pecans, although I was not familiar with the word wasabi.

I opened the can and plopped a whole pecan in my mouth. Immediately I ran for the sink as I spit the hot-as-fire morsel out. With tears streaming down my cheeks, I doused my mouth with a couple of glasses of water and then grabbed some bread to take the edge off. When my mouth finally cooled down and I regained my composure, I typed wasabi into the computer and found out what I had suspected—Japanese horseradish!

Later, my son stopped by and thought he would sample the pecans too.

“You’d better be careful. Those are like eating fire.”

He laughed and said something about my not being able to hold my spice, but instead of popping it in his mouth, he licked it. One lick sent him dashing to the sink, where he washed out his mouth and grabbed ice water.

Hmmm, I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t hold my spice!

—Pam Whitley

Father, help me to realize that, even though something looks or feels good to my flesh, I had better know what it is before I partake of it, or I can get seriously burned. Amen.