Aliens on the Menu

I don't really like unusual food.  People just keep giving it to me.  Someone previously joked - and is probably correct - that growing up in Alabama prepared me for the other things I would encounter.  What did I eat in Alabama?  Well, the things that aren't so common for the rest of you would be things like frog legs, land turtles, squirrells, rabbits, deer, wild boar, opossum.  But people in other areas eat things that even we call strange.  When in Texas, I was served calf fries (you'll have to look that one up). And even stranger would be the mountain oysters that I've been given (same line of thinking...but raw??? Come on, people!). If you go to other parts of the world, they'll give you snails, sea slugs, rats and on and on. But the question that people ask me is this:  What is the weirdest thing you've ever had?

I lived in Japan for a few years, and I was given so many interesting foods.  Because there are so many animal lovers out there, I won't give you the entire list all in one lump...I'll sort of spoon feed it to you little by little.  At one dinner alone, I was given a few of the strangest on my list.  I was taken to a very, very fancy little restaurant by my employer and his wife.  This place was incredibly exclusive and supremely expensive.  It is probably the most costly meal of my life.  I believe that my portion of the evening was somewhere around US$500.  Japanese food typically comes in a series of tiny little bowls and plates, but usually they arrive at the same time.  In this restaurant, however, the tiny dishes came one by one, as if to highlight their...uh...uniqueness.  Right off the bat, weird food #1 was set before me: I had a tiny raw quail egg that I was supposed to break into a little bowl.  Then, I was to take a sea cucumber (you really need to look him up) and squeeze out the contents of his stomach into the little bowl with the quail egg....I used the little bitty whisk that accompanied the dish, frothed it up real good...and drank it.  Oh, my.  there's not much more to say about that. 

Same dinner, next course... I was given a food said to make my brain operate at maximum potential: a raw tuna eyeball.  I'm just not joking.  These things are a lot larger than you think, and they are quite challenging to eat with chopsticks! (and, oh, so slimy) The dinner kept plodding along...gills of a bottom dweller... tiny, tiny live octopi....and rounding off with a gigantic squid that was placed in the center of the table.  The colors on that creature were beautiful and something like the aurora borealis.  The sparkling hues were mesmerizing and constantly shifting.  I can't explain how beautiful it was.  I knew that he was the selfsame squid that we had seen just minutes before, swimming in the stream that ran through the entry of the restaurant.  He was so fresh that his skin was still alive...but that wasn't all....HE was alive!  The minute I reached out to get a piece of squid sashimi, this magnificent water creature reached up with his very strong tentacles and grabbed my chopsticks! I was at war with my food! My hosts just chuckled and watched me struggle.  I blushed a little but kept up the fight.  Before long, several tentacles were wrapped around my chopsticks, and I knew I couldn't get them back.  A waitress ran over, and together we were able to free my utensils...and dinner continued.  Weird, right?

I almost believed in aliens that day.  That squid was watching me with those huge eyes, and he almost outwitted me in our battle.  The colors of his skin were certainly other-worldly.  Yep, it was an alien.  All facts pointed to the obvious. 

I Peter 2:11-12 reminds us that we, too, are other-worldly.  "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us." I'm not saying that we're as lowly as squid, but we should be a little odd when compared to the world.  We can't live lives that blend in with the things that go on around us. Rather, we should be outstanding in behavior and appearance - so much so that the world keeps an eye on us.  If they are watching us, then they will see the glory of the Father at work in our lives.  Something about us will be like that beautiful skin on the squid.  There will be a divine, colorful, transparent beauty that is mesmerizing to the people around us. 

Go ahead and be a little different! I love the uniqueness of you! And...let me know...what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

Favorite snowed-in edible? (since we are, in fact, snowed in)My children love to come in to a mug of steaming hot cocoa!  We make it the old-fashioned way...with whole milk, cocoa powder, sugar and a drop or two of vanilla.  Much, much better than instant!

[For the menfolk who need interpretation: (thanks to MK-lol) We belong to God and are not, therefore, to be like the people around us.  We should be examples of God's glory to this otherwise dark world.]