Pass the Salt, Please

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13 KJV In ancient history, salt was sought and bartered. In some places it was carried by camels across scorching deserts such as in West Africa where eager merchants traded it to waiting customers. Salt was used for money in some places, thus giving us the word salary. Today salt is used for many purposes, stocked in grocery stores, and is available on virtually every table. We use it medicinally, and blocks of salt satisfy cattle’s craving. Salt in water raises the boiling point, yet salt melts ice. Put salt on meat and it preserves it. Leave salt off the table and your appetite leaves with it. But too much salt is harmful. It makes your feet and legs swell and too much is hard on the heart. Examine one grain of salt under a microscope and note its cube shape. Its sides are made of two elements, sodium and chlorine. These combine to form sodium chloride – salt. Imagine soldiers in a tug of war. An ion of chlorine glares from one corner at a sodium ion guarding the opposite side. As crystallization occurs the chlorine wins in the stare-down. Sodium surrenders its single valence electron to chlorine and together they become sodium chloride. Consider it in verse: Salty Sentinels Sodium ions stable, assembled on the table, salivating palates crave. Chlorine ions tiny, mustering soldiers briny, guarding corners brave. Sodium chlorine making, crystal shakers shaking cubes so salty white. Ever fighting blandness; vectors adding grandness, enhance the appetite! There is no wonder Jesus used salt as an example to the disciples in his Sermon on the Mount. He exhorts Christians to have salt in themselves and have peace with one another. See Mark 9:50