Adding color. It was Grandma Osee’s idea decades ago. And it worked. It solved her dilemma. You see, Osee couldn’t see – the salt, that is.
Food coloring was her solution. She mixed it with salt and soon red, blue, and green shakers adorned her table. Now her food danced with colored sparkles – and her blood pressure likely dropped, too, now that she could see how much salt she was consuming.
I was recently introduced to Grandma Osee, actually to her colorful salt, via her gracious granddaughter, Cindy. She invited me and my Indianapolis Great Banquet reunion group to her lake house for a weekend. When I spotted the blue sea salt in the kitchen, I was intrigued – and actually in awe of this brilliant, yet simple idea.
As I marveled at the jars of colored salt, it got me thinking about my life. Just as Grandma Osee couldn’t physically see the plain salt right in front of her, I have limited vision that prevents me from seeing things clearly. My vision is impacted by many factors – my upbringing, education, occupation, experiences, community, and beliefs. It’s also skewed by my imbedded biases and blind spots – whether I acknowledge them or not. I, as a human being, am limited and will never be able to clearly see all perspectives of a given situation. And, unfortunately, there is no easy solution like colored salt to remedy this reality.
But there is someone who can help. God has given us the “Spectacles of Scripture.” John Calvin, famous theologian, pastor, and founder of the Presbyterian Church, coined this term in Volume 1, Chapter 6 of his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion first published in 1536. In it, Calvin explained how Scripture is needed to see clearly, especially to gain an accurate knowledge of God.
“Just as old or bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God.”
I am grateful for His Word which has become my lens to live by. His view is crystal clear, unobstructed, and infinite – his spectacles are spectacular! And Osee’s salt – ingenious.
Grandma Osee
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9