7,000 Taste Buds

Taste buds. Yep, that’s what I wrote in my journal today. Thank you, Lord, for taste buds. 

Has it ever occurred to you that God didn’t have to create us with taste buds? He could have made us like dogs, who only have enough taste buds to determine if their food is spoiled and could kill them.

Without taste buds, we’d eat simply to supply our bodies with enough calories to survive. It wouldn’t matter what we ate as long as we filled our stomachs. Like pumping gasoline into a gas tank. Or watering a plant. 

Instead, God gave us 7,000 taste buds with the ability to sense sweet, salty, bitter, salty, and savory. And oh, the pleasure we experience when we taste the sweetness of a ripe watermelon. Or the salty deliciousness of a giant bowl of buttered popcorn. Or the savory, melt-in-your-mouth goodness of a perfectly-cooked steak. 

First Timothy 6:17 gives us a glimpse of why God infused our bodies and our world with sensory pleasures. “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” 

Did you catch the back half of this verse? “God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” 

When God created the world, he designed it for our pleasure. He created flowers with heavenly scents, sunsets with a rainbow of colors, and kittens with silky-soft fur. He made bumbly puppies with sweet-smelling puppy breath, chattering squirrels to make us laugh, and friends and family to enjoy life with. 

God could have made the world utilitarian. Monochromatic. Efficient. Dull. Instead he created it with a billion spots of delight and pleasure. Our precious Father, who richly gives us all we need (and so much more) fashioned the world for our enjoyment. 

What a gift. What a God. 

Today, as you make your way through the world, take a moment and pause. Smell the air. Feel the sunshine or the rain. Savor the flavor of your food. Ponder the things that bring you pleasure. Then thank your creator, the God who loves you so much that he surrounds you with gifts to enjoy. 

See. Hear. Touch. Smell. Taste. Be grateful. 


Now it’s your turn. What has God created that you especially enjoy? Leave a comment below and share your sensory pleasures. If you're reading by email, click HERE to visit Hungry for God online.

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