Salt and Ice

The first snowstorm of the season! So beautiful! So dangerous! My husband and I were at our office, keeping very busy in the morning as our patients changed their appointments to try to make it home before the worst of the storm. By the time we were making our way home, the worst had passed, but the roads were terrible. Thank God for 4 wheel drive! Anyway, as we crossed from one town into another, the state of the roads would change depending upon how each town treated the roads. Then on one road near our home, the road was practically clear! It was apparent that the town had salted that roadway early on and throughout the day. The salt had thoroughly melted the frozen snow and ice.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth. " As salt is used to thaw the frozen roadways, our job is to thaw frozen hearts.

Salt was a precious commodity in Bible times, used to preserve food and provide flavor. It has healing properties, produces thirst, and was so valuable that people were often paid in salt (sal-ary). All these qualities relate to us as disciples as well. We are to be a preserving factor in society, adding flavor to people's lives, being a healing influence on those around us and producing a thirst for God.

Jesus warns, "But what good is salt if it has lost its saltiness? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out." Since salt is a very stable substance, it is impossible for salt to lose any of its properties. So what did Jesus mean? In His day, the way that salt lost its "saltiness" was to become comingled with other substances, like sand. In other words, as salt, we are to remain pure, and to be the one having a positive effect on others, to be the influencer.

Let the salt we so commonly use every day be a reminder for us to "be the salt of the earth".
Susan