Many of you know that eight to ten years ago, I decided to take up grilling and smoking as a hobby. Granted, it wasn’t my first rodeo. I’ve always been intrigued by cooking over an open fire and those long ago memories of my childhood come back each time I light the charcoal smoker or the pellet grill.
We have a variety of ways to cook around here. We have the regular gas grills and then the smokers that have really upped my game when it comes to snack sticks, pulled pork, brisket and so many other foods that our family loves. As I have backed off my corporate workload I have to admit that I have become more intent to become more proficient in my chosen hobby.
Janet and I have gradually upgraded our equipment and the products necessary to do the job at an efficient and effective level. For the most part, things have gone rather smoothly and we have been blessed with the time and space to really work on our craft.
We have been remarkably fortunate that things have been rather uneventful when it comes to being able to cook at our leisure. Until about a month ago…. That’s when I noticed a funny noise coming from one of our smokers. Sure enough – I couldn’t get it to stop and ended up calling the manufacturer for some advice. After a long call, it was determined that several parts had to be replaced. Thankfully, the company was kind enough to provide them free of charge. That solved the first issue.
Around the same time, we ended up having a problem with our charcoal grill. Solving this one wasn’t so easy. But I ordered the parts we needed and waited. In the meantime, Janet and I got away for a week in the beautiful state of Maine and returned late last week. I have to admit that I was excited that all of the parts arrived during our trip. Now we just had to make the repairs.
Clearly, I’m much more interested in this hobby than Janet is. Thankfully, she humors me by listening to all my tales of woe! This weekend, Jill’s husband Matt and I made all the repairs. It was a busy time. Having been gone for the week, there were so many normal tasks that had to be done in addition to these smoker issues.
Anyway, today was the day that I decided to make dinner on the smoker. I invited Janet to sit outside with me while I watched to make sure that the repairs were effective. Things didn’t start out very well. I won’t go into great detail – it would bore you to tears. But let’s say that I was getting nervous about whether or not I would be able to fix dinner or if we were going to have to order in.
We got into a discussion about what I was going to do – and then it happened. That aroma of burning wood started to fill the air. That wonderful, familiar aroma and the plumes of smoke rising into the air. I knew at that point that everything was going to work out alright – and it did. By the way, the pork tenderloin was late – but very good!
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that virtually my entire life, I have always loved the smell of a live fire. There’s nothing like the smoke rising to the heavens and the wonderful aroma of food on the grill or smoker.
In the Bible, there are many references to incense, offerings and the plumes of smoke rising to God. In fact, we are told that the aroma was pleasing to God and that the smoke represented the prayers of the people rising to God. Several denominations still use incense and candles to memorialize the Old Testament references to the worship of God.
As I was sitting outside this afternoon, I couldn’t help but remember some of the verses that reinforced the aroma of smoke rising to our Heavenly Father. Our verse tonight is one of the ones I thought of earlier today. In fact, the verse has to do with the sacrifice of a meat offering by Noah after the Flood when he and his family were delivered from death. Upon arriving on dry ground, Noah offered a burnt offering to God. Moses, the author of Genesis, tells us, in Genesis 8:20-9:1, “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.”
In fact, during this exchange between God and Noah, we are introduced to the Noahic Covenant. God promises to never destroy the entire earth again with water. It is one of the benchmark moments in the relationship between God and mankind. And it came to pass as Noah was preparing a meat offering!
My encouragement this evening is that God is eager to be in relationship with us. Noah and his family were blessed by God and even given a mandate to fill the earth with their descendants. My prayer is that we will recognize that even the smallest acts of worship are appreciated by our Heavenly Father. It should be our goal to please Him with our offerings. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…