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Raspberries and rhubarb grow side by side in my garden. Rhubarb has to be cooked but raspberries fresh - WOW! Splintering shards of flavour exploded through my mouth when I ate them in July –they were SO GOOD after the sunny April.

I don't know the biochemistry of raspberry flavour or their colour either, but I know enough to marvel that they are produced from the simple raw materials of light, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients that the raspberry canes, like the rhubarb clumps, take in. Yet from these basic building blocks the different and wonderful tastes of raspberries and rhubarb, and every other plant material that we eat, are formed.

What wealth to be able to enjoy these flavours, what an experience to taste them. In our technologically sophisticated planet, we would do well to retrain our senses to detect and our sensibilities to delight in the organically sophisticated world we can experience with simply the taste buds on our tongues.

Many of us give thanks before our meals but maybe we need to take a little more time to ponder what we're eating and how it has come to be on our plates. Appreciating the amazing transformation that plants achieve in producing the flavours and textures of our food could enrich life every day.

God's creation is indeed 'very good' and His provision for us is lavish. Considering this could help us begin to reorient our lifestyles so that we are motivated to care for creation not just out of fear or as responsibility but also out of thankfulness.

Ethel White