“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed…” (Genesis 1:29a, ESV).
An odd phenomenon has come to the social networking sites, that of passing along home remedies of various types.
Does a banana peel really take out the sting of a mosquito bite? I don’t know, but I do know that the peel contains some powerful stain-causing compounds. I don’t think I want to risk such a messy remedy, unless I know it works.
You may wonder if my reticence is a result of experience. Sadly, it is.
I am a big proponent of eating all kinds of “volunteer vegetables” (a.k.a. weeds) that I can find. I read a book and found that the author excitedly claimed that the common cattail, when steamed, tastes just like fresh corn.
We harvested some young seed heads as the book directed, steamed them, and put out the butter in anticipation of a delicious treat. One bite told us that this was a piece of advice that was much better imagined than done. After washing the fuzzy fluff from our mouths-–a task that took a long time-–we resolved never to have cat on the cob again.
Other home remedies have proven useful, such as using pennyroyal to repel fleas from a homeless cat that adopted us (Please don’t ask if she tasted good steamed. We only eat vegetarian cat!).
We found out that the daisy-like plants that grow wild in our garden are actually Fleabane, which repels fleas too. I have bathed my dog in an infusion of this plant, and rub the fresh leaves into his fur on occasion.
I recently heard a method of finding out if unknown mushrooms are poisonous, by cooking them with a silver coin. The sweet lady who told me this used the term “fifty-cent piece,” which would probably be more like a “fifty-dollar piece” these days.
She said that if the coin turns black, don’t eat the mushrooms. I think it would be safer to just say no to something that could kill me if I get it wrong.
What about some of the home remedies we casually try in our spiritual life? There are traditions passed down through the ages, their sources largely unknown. Many of my friends give up something for Lent, not realizing that it is a Catholic doctrine, not a Bible teaching.
“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” is a concept questioned by God (Colossians 2:21). “For these have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion” (Colossians 2:23a). There are many chimney corner scriptures that people assume are straight from the Scriptures, but are more akin to a home remedy. What about the so-called Sinner’s Prayer? It’s an addition that is fairly recent. “Follow your heart?” No such scripture.
There are candles, crosses and symbols, and holy water that purportedly have special powers. There are pictures, trees, and even baked goods that may or may not look like Jesus, supposedly with mystical properties.
These types of home remedies can be much more damaging than rubbing peanut butter into your carpet to remove a stain (By the way, this just leaves a bigger stain).
God has given us his word, in written form. Why would we add our own little remedies to it? Revelation 22:18- 19 tells us that if we add to the Bible, God will add the plagues written in the book.
What we have in the Bible is enough to make the Christian “complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
No home remedy needed!
–Christine Berglund