I hate margarine.  I can’t imagine putting it on toast or especially on home-made bread, fresh from the oven.  It would be a travesty, an abomination.  Okay, so I’m a little militant about margarine.  If you are in the pro-margarine camp, I apologize.  If you are required to use margarine for health reasons, you have my sympathy.

Here’s the thing.  I never knew I hated margarine until I married Sandy.  All my life I had used margarine.  I was raised with it and I continued using it into adulthood.  I would probably still be using the vile stuff today, but Sandy would have none of it.  It didn’t take long until I was a convert.  I’d never go back.

All those years in which I used a substitute instead of the real thing, I never knew what I was missing.  (I could also say that without Sandy I would never have known true love either.  She’s done a lot more for me than improve the way I eat toast!)  Sometimes we just don’t appreciate how bland and flat the substitutes are until we taste the real thing.

Jeremiah speaks the word of the Lord against the people of Israel, saying:

“they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
that can hold no water.”

What’s worse than never tasting the superiority of butter?  Turning your back on it for some factory-made grease.  What’s worse than never knowing the life-giving grace of God’s abundance?  Abandoning it for the useless substitutes that we manufacture for ourselves. 

Prayer:  God of mercy, we’re sick of the stagnant dregs we have been drinking.  We come to you for the living water that only you can provide. Amen.