Hold the Onions, Please
Hold the Onions, Please
Onions. A truly loathsome ingredient. To say I dislike onions would be giving them way too much credit. I can’t imagine anyone taking delight in such a repulsive flavor. What redeeming value is there to a food that makes you cry… or rhymes with “bunion”? And who was the first person to yank one out of the dirt, chop it up, and through the tears say to himself: Yeah, I definitely need to eat this thing!
I realize I’m in the minority here. Most people love onions. They can’t imagine their favorite dish without this pungent produce. And these same people think everyone ought to enjoy onions as much as they do. When preparing a meal, they say, “Oh, you don’t like onions? I’ll cut them up really small and you won’t even taste them.” OK, for the record: I can still taste them. And secondly, is that statement even logical?
Then there are some who think they can pick raw onions off a salad and have it taste like it was never onionized. Nope. That’s like wiping spilled spaghetti sauce off a white tablecloth. You can’t do it without leaving a lasting impression.
In a spiritual sense, sometimes I think of sin as God’s onions. The Bible teaches that God hates sin. It’s repulsive to Him. There are no exceptions and no special recipes. It can’t be disguised, covered up, deep-fried, or caramelized. Even just the tiniest bit taints everything it comes in contact with -- staining us, and those around us. Psalm 5:4-5 says, “O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness; you cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked. Therefore, the proud may not stand in your presence, for you hate all who do evil.”
In a world that glorifies sin and promotes it as a tasty necessity in our lives, it’s easy to become desensitized and let our guard down. With this in mind, perhaps it’s a good challenge to ask yourself: if the Lord was invited to your house for a meal, and you knew He despised onions, would you still cook with them? Would you try to disguise or hide them? Would you try to slip them past by making them really small, or maybe attempt to pick them out later? Would there ever be a reason to even buy or experiment with this unsavory ingredient if you knew in the end it would be unacceptable to Him?
In reality, we already know what His preferences are. Let’s be intentional about pleasing the Lord with what He desires from us. Let’s prepare and present Him with only the things we know He loves.
2 Corinthians 5:9 - “We make it our goal to please Him…”
- Ron Reid
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