My wife and I were sipping on our coffees on our day off, when her first sip drew the crème-art into a different configuration. She wondered aloud if a barista could achieve the skill of pouring the milk, but in such a way that the real picture is only revealed after the first sip. We knew at that point we were on dangerous ground, and well beyond the phrase ‘first-world problem’; and quickly backed away, glad to even have a coffee to sip on.

If any venture capitalist is reading this, you’re free to take the idea and run with it; but for me, it suggested that some things only take their true shape when you personally engage them. That verse, ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’, doesn’t quite capture it, for it speaks more to someone who can already see that God is good, but just needs to prove it by personal engagement.

I’m thinking more – of a scene taking shape, once it’s engaged. A bit like the priests in the story of Joshua who stood on the flooded bank of the Jordan river. They were commanded to step forward, and only once they took their first step, the scene started to change. The waters receded, until the sandy bottom revealed a safe place for the people to cross over to their new home. And so sometimes a situation looks difficult to interpret, even chaotic, until it is sipped-on by faith.