One way that I have tasted God.
You know when you really feel Gods presence, or as I say, Taste God, youll get a warm fuzzy feeling. Let me tell you a story.
Back in the early 70s, I was happily married and had a daughter, about 5 years old. Her name was Amanda, we called her Mandy.
She was such a sweet angel and joy to me and her mother. My entire family attended church then. We had a relationship with a Higher Power we called God. And even then, though, we did not believe half of what that preacher said.
Let me repeat that this was in about 1974. I had a clerical job much better than my friends had, and I took home $76 a week. That was good money back then. A coke was 6 cents, cigarettes were 25 cent a pack, $2.00 carton. Eggs were 29 cents a dozen, and we spent a big $20 a week on groceries and drinks.
Saturday was my day with Mandy, my off day from work. I normally just included her with my chores, and she just hung along as I did the yard work and worked on my honey do list.
One Saturday, Many and I were shopping at Woolworths Department Store in downtown. When we got in line, about third at the cash register, she saw them. Hanging on a card was those cheap, plastic, imitation, fake, Barbie-doll pearls. I often bought her a toy or treat on Saturdays, back then 35 cents would buy a coloring book and crayons. $1.29 would buy a nice baby doll. But because those cheap fake pearls had BARBIE DOLL on them, they were priced $2.95!
Daddy, please buy me those pearls, she cried. Please, Please!. (Im not going to fool with quotation marks here) I took them off the hook and saw that $2.95 price tag and had to say NO WAY, Mandy, No Way! But Daddy, please, I love you, they are pretty, they are real Barbie Doll, they look real, I want them, I want them, please, daddy, please. I had to tell her NO, I only brought $7.00 with me and was on a budget. $2.95 was a lot of money then. So I told her, darling, you will have a birthday in 2 weeks. You already have a dollar in your piggy bank. You know Grandma will send you a dollar in her birthday card to you then, and the neighbor, Mrs Johnson has been begging you to come help her pull weeds out of her flowers. You could make and earn $2.95 within a week, and buy them for yourself. She proudly put her hands on her hips and siad I will surely do that, daddy, I will work and save my money and buy them for myself.
And she did just that. As soon as we got home, she deserted me to visit Mrs Johnson. Mrs Johnson gave her 50 cents to spend the afternoon with her, pulling weeds. Mandy came home about 5 pm, dirty as a pig. Daddy, I got 50 cents!, she bragged to me. And I am saving my money to buy me those Barbie Doll pearls. ( did I mention they were cheap fake, plastic, on a rubber band, they should have been 39 cents.)
So she went back to Mrs Johnsons on the next Saturday and returned dirty and tired, with another 50 cents. She was so proud. She got her birthday dollar that week from her Grandma, and with $3.00 started begging, when are we going back to Woolworths, when are we going back to Woolworths?
The next Saturday, I took her to Woolworths, and we found and she bought the Barbie Doll, Expensive, fake, plastic pearls. I gave her the 8 cents she needed for the sale tax, and she made me promise to giver her a way to earn that 8 cents, so she could claim she bought them entirely with her own money.
That child loved those pearls, she wore them everywhere, every day, and for the whole next year, she would not take them off. One Saturday evening, her mama told me, you know she wears them in her bath too. I am so afraid that rubber band is going to break soon, and we wont be able to fix them. I said, I know, I know.
It was her mothers job to bathe her and get her in her pajamas, and my job to tuck her in at night, and say her prayers with her. It was our routine.
Well, about two weeks before her next birthday, I got a bonus of $90 from work. That was a nice surprise, we had no debts then, and I could do whatever I wanted with it. I decided to spend $30 on me,$30 on my wife,
and $30 on Mandy. Off to Friedmans I went, and bought my wife a blue topaz diamond ring she wanted, and I bought Mandy a string of real, genuine, deep water cultured pearls.
That Saturday, I hid the ring under my wifes pillow, and I hid the pearls in my hip pocket. The pearls were in a nice, blue velvet lined, black felt box.
It was two weeks before Mandy;s birthday, but I was anxious to give them to her, and waited until bed and prayer time. I went into her room, and we siad her prayers, and then I guess as a joke, or prank, I asked her, Can daddy have your pearls, darling? She sais WHAT ? Daddy, are you crazy? What do you want my pearls for? I told her, I want them to hang on my rearview mirror in the car. I was just teasing her, as I often did. But she took me verysseriously, and said, daddy, you know what these pearls mean to me, they make me look grown, and I worked so hard to save my money and buy them with my own money. I would never give up these pearls, never daddy. But you can have my unicorn, up there on the shelf to hang on your mirror. And I said, but darling, they re just cheap, plastic, fake, phoney pearls. And she would repeat herself, and I would play aruge with her. I told her, No, I wanted the pearls, and again, she told me, No way , Daddy these are MY pearls. I love my pearls, Daddy. I look like a lady with them on.
I said OK, and as I turned off the lights, I hid her new real pearls on the shelf way above her bed, behind the unicorn. I figured I d wait , and give them to her later.
Well, to tell the story, I got to tell the truth, I continued to tease her every night for about 4 or 5 nights in a row. Same Routine. Can Daddy have your pearls, Mandy? I really want them, please. No, she would whine, NO WAY, Daddy, you know how hard I worked for these pearls, you know how much I love them, you know what these pearls mean to me. And she would cling to them, every night as I teased her.
The next night, I went in, same routine. Except when I again asked for her pearls, She looked up at me, her lower lip trimbled and swollen out, and as she took the pearls off, and reached them up to me, a tear rolled down her cheek, and she said, Here, Daddy, you can have my pearls, I know how much you want them, and I want you to know how much I love you. You take them. And, as a tear rolled down my cheek, I reached up on top of her shelf, and handed to her, her real genuine deep water culture pearls. She opened that box, shouted with joy and laughter, and as I put them on her neck, we both broke down in tears and cried. I sat there and held her for a long time, both us just repeating to each other how much we loved each other and how happy we both were with our new pearls.
I am getting to the GOD part. I knew I could not tell this briefly.
Later, as I recalled this story over in my mind, I was visited by that voice.
The voice like we often hear when we argue with ourselves or pondr something over in our minds. You can call it my conscious, my guardian angel, my dead grandma, God, THE FORCE, whatever. That little voice said, Greg, you know that sort is sort of like several exchanges you have had with me. Like the time you made up your mind to give up the cocaine and give it to me. You gave up something that you thought was very valuable, something very important in your life, something you really enjoyed, valued and appreciated. But after you was willing to give up your fake, phoeny pearls, I gave you a longer life, a healthier life, and the peace and jot that not being a coke-head brings.
And after you gave up the hatred for your X-wife, and emptied your heart of hate, you know how much you wanted to cling to that hate too!!!. You know how much you valued that feeling of wanting to just kill her. Your hated for her was your entire life!! BUT, after you gave it to me, I was able to give you a heart of LOVE and caring and Happiness and Joy. You was willing to give up a cheap no good thing, thought or idea, for something far more real and valuable. And that is how I work, that is how I operate.
And that is one way I have tasted God.
God loves you too, bro'. 
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) hit me wit' a pm. but respect this thread...
real talk!