Salty

Have you ever read something so much that you quit paying attention to what it says?  I had one of those moments earlier this week when I was reading a very familiar passage in Matthew 5.

I know this should not come as a shocker, but Jesus was completely brilliant in choosing salt and light as His analogy of what we're to be in this world.  I started thinking about some of the basic properties of salt:

• It is used to bring out flavors that already exist in a food.
• A little bit of it goes a long way.
• Too much of it can ruin a piece of food.
• Tasting it will make a person thirsty.
• If it is placed on a wound, it will sting a little, but it can also have healing properties.
• It is by its very nature salty.  If it tried to be any other flavor, or lost that property somehow, it's worthless.
• And I think this had even more meaning in a culture where salt was used as a valuable food preservative and currency.

It made me think twice about how many of these kind of qualities I'm living in my everyday interactions with people I know as well as complete strangers.  Am I being salty (no reference to the singing songbook)? :-)