carrabbas

my family and i are going out to dinner tonight to carrabbas. i'm pretty excited. i just love going out for dinner, and especially for italian food! don't know why, just always have! and i was getting so excited, that i literally just wanted to see the menu. i just had to look at it. (ha ha, it's okay... you can laugh at me!) and so i googled it. (which is what we all do, all the time, these days, right? google everything) and i was reading the menu, from the comfort of our office chair, and was just drooling over the menu. (i really really love pasta, italian soups, chicken, all of it...) and then all of a sudden, i became ashamed that i was drooling over this menu. first off-it's like, a bunch of black lines drawn on a piece of paper. there's nothing to it. it's just written "words". so why am i drooling over it? it's because of the memories behind the words. the minute you say, lasagna,i'm thinking of my mom's homemade lasagna, and how good it is, and sitting with my family around the table on a cold winter night, enjoying our lasagna. or if you say, fettuccine alfredo, i'm thinking of pasta in a creamy yummy sauce, with chicken and vegetables. (flow with me here!) think about any "word", preferably food. sure, it's just a word. i mean, honestly, when i hear the word "the", i'm not getting all excited and toasty. but when i hear, ravioli, i do! now--here's where i'm going with this.
do you think... that this concept carries over, to our thoughts and feelings towards god. when you hear the word, jesus, what comes to mind? what about god? what about the holy spirit? do you start smiling and think about the love that comes from that relationship? the memories? are you excited? or is it more like just some word... have you lost the sense of awe and wonder? are you truly in love?
what comes to your mind?