Think about this. You must scrub, peel, chop, boil, and mash a potato before you can enjoy the yummy dish that bears that name. If you want more than a mouthful, you need to repeat these steps many times over.
First, you select your spud and give it a good scrub. Next comes peeling away the thick skin to expose the shiny inner substance. Then, chop or dice. Either way, you need to cut it into pieces so that after they’re boiled they become soft enough to be mashed into, well, a mash. Of course, to make the mashed potatoes really delicious, you add salt, pepper, butter, and milk. The result is mouth-watering.
Slightly adjacent to potatoes are we Christians. Bear with me.
Like a dirty spud, we need a good wash—divinely done with the blood of Jesus. When we submit to the Holy Spirit, He begins to peel away layers of our self-interest. As He exposes our sin and anything else we hold onto that is not of Him, we can feel like we are being diced into small pieces. Boiling? That’s the Refiner’s Fire. Then, we are mashed into a form of His choosing to display His works. The butter, salt, pepper, and milk are like the gifts He imparts to us to invest in His body.
Just as it takes a lot of spuds to create a bowl of mashed potatoes, a thriving church is made up of many members. As we submit to Him and one another, God transforms us into His delicacy. Together, we become the aroma of Christ, beckoning others to taste and see that the Lord is good.
