Cucumbers
This has been a busy week and I have not had time to think about the leaflet until today, Saturday. This morning, as I was driving to a ladies’ day in Aldershot, accompanied by three friends, I remarked I would have to be alert for a message, adding this usually took the form of several mentions of the same thing. Well the only thing that was repeated was cucumber (and that which I had for lunch also repeated). The Lord seems to have shown his sense of humour and set me a real challenge this week. I admit I had no idea cucumbers were mentioned in the Bible until today.
We started by discussing our packed lunches and the idea that cucumber sandwiches on the Vicarage lawn defined English cuisine. As we passed my old school, in Guildford, I mentioned that I’d had cucumber sandwiches for lunch every day for years, as they were my favourite – but not my mother’s. She hated the fact they could not be made the night before, the watery nature of cucumber makes the bread soggy and it shrinks. We moved on to mention that no salad would be complete without it – you may not notice if it is there but you miss it if it is not. We considered how indigestible it was to some people but thought no more about it until lunchtime when it figured on all our plates and merited a mention. Then the really amazing thing happened. The speaker was talking about being contented with one’s lot and not dwelling on what one used to have or might have in the future and she quoted Numbers 11:5, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.”
The ungrateful Israelites complained that God was giving them boring food in the form of quail and manna every day and recalled what they’d had before but they only considered the good food, they selectively forgot the subjugation and the ill treatment by their taskmasters in Egypt. The speaker continued by saying that we often think we could have more possessions and wealth if God would only make it happen, we forget that what we have now is what we eagerly hoped for in the past. When we got the things we currently detest or feel are not good enough, including in many cases our spouses, we rejoiced and told all our friends how wonderful life was. She asked what happened between then and now to change their value and our appreciation. She answered her own question – the enemy sowed a small seed of discontent, fed and watered it and watched it grow, and we allowed it to happen. Therefore we must be on our guard, we have to remember that we brought nothing into this world and we take nothing out (1 Tim.6:7). Material things are actually immaterial, it is our acceptance of our lot and our ability to know that the only thing we really need is Jesus in our lives, that matters.
And what of the cucumber? Well we decided it is a good cash crop, it can nourish us and quench our thirst and even be used as a cosmetic or herbal remedy, and for the environmentalists among us, it is green.
