A Cup of Tea and a Slice of Cheese
The famous Diarist, Samuel Pepys is understood to be the first to record the drinking of a cup of English tea. His diary contains the earliest known written reference to someone in England drinking tea, when in 1664 he refers to “bottles of china drink“- the first written report of a cup of tea being offered socially, rather than medicinally.
In September 1666, Pepys is in a panic. The disaster which later came to be known as ‘The Great Fire’ is consuming London at an alarming rate. Terrified that he might have to abandon his most valuable possessions to the flames, he dashes outside and digs a hole in the ground.
There he buries his precious hoard of belongings, which includes not only his gold and his important papers but also a large ‘wheel’ of Parmesan Cheese. We might think this was a strange thing to do, but to Pepys, the cheese was an investment. Cheeses such as these, which could weigh up to 200Ibs, were used as diplomatic gifts. For example, in 1556 Pope Paul IV made gifts of “eight great Parmesan cheeses” to Queen Mary. To Pepys, cheese would have been too valuable to lose.
Samuel Pepys obviously had significant wealth and he was careful to protect his possessions of greatest value, and that makes sense. But what makes infinitely more sense, is to protect our possession of greatest value – our own eternal soul.
Protecting wealth in this life will only benefit us in this life. But what of the life to come?
Each one of us will stand before God and give account for what we have done in this life and most importantly what we have done with His precious Son, Jesus.
Jesus came into this world – into this life, to bring us eternal life. Life that is not dependent on wealth – not dependent on fame – dependent on nothing but what Jesus did for us when He took the punishment for our sin when He died on the cross.
No amount of wealth, fame or anything else this life offers, will give us eternal life (Heaven) and there is no other way to protect our souls from eternal separation from life (Hell) other than to repent of our sin, and to receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
We do well to heed the warning in the Word of God which says:
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)