COLD!

Remarkable stuff, gelato! To our everlasting credit (!), we had gelato every day—yes, every day—the last couple of weeks in Italy. That’s my brother and I outside a reputed purveyor of the good stuff in the Eternal City, Rome. We look like we need gelato. We did! Badly!

(My nephew, who was with us, reminds me that we did not have gelato every day; he tells me we skipped one day, but made up for it by having the concoction twice the next day. That’s la dolce vita for you!)

May I remind the wet blankets and naysayers and mood-spoilers that gelato is actually good for you?

Ice-cream, legally, has to have a minimum of 10% fat; but gelato, made with a greater proportion of whole milk to cream, has only 3–8% fat. Bring it on, I say. This less fat, according to connoisseurs and gourmands, also enables gelato to coat the mouth differently than ice-cream, intensifying its flavors. I can vouch for that!

The churning during its manufacture is also slower and thus it has less “overrun”—the air that is whipped into the mixture—than ice-cream (25–30% vs. ice-cream’s 50%).

When all is said and done, you have an extremely dense, rich, creamy, and flavorful treat. Bacio, stracciatella, mandorla, nocciola, fior de latte, zabaione, fragola, lampone, crema, and other such exotic varieties of gelato tempt the unwary traveler. Pure seduction! One scoop just won’t do it. In fact, every time we partook of this concoction, we had at least two or three flavors in a single cup. YUM!

Especially after a day of walking all over the city to see sights, gelato was a very welcome break.

Like cold water to a weary soul,
So is good news from a distant land.
Proverbs 25:25

Good news, or even a good word or an act of kindness, is truly a refreshment, and worthy of eternal reward.

And whoever …
gives to one of these little ones
even a cup of cold water to drink,
truly I say to you,
he shall not lose his reward.
Matthew 10:42

Then there were the Laodiceans, to whom Jesus wrote:

I know your deeds,
that you are neither cold nor hot ….
So because you are lukewarm,
and neither hot nor cold,
I will spit you out of My mouth.
Revelation 3:15–16

You see, in Colossae, a few miles away from Laodicea on one side, were cold springs of water. In Hierapolis, a few miles in the other direction were hot springs of medicinal water. The first served as a refreshment to the weary, the other as a healing balm for the sick.

And in between the cold water fountain and the hot water source was Laodicea, which had no water of its own. Laodicea’s water came from the hot springs of Hierapolis via an aqueduct, thro a waterfall and a meandering path, so that when the water finally reached Laodicea, it was neither cold nor hot—just lukewarm. Neither providing the refreshment of the cold springs of Colossae, nor the healing of the hot waters of Hierapolis. Useless. Neither good for this, nor good for that—good for nothing. u

Unlike Philemon, whom Paul commends:

… I hear of your love and of the faith
which you have toward the Lord Jesus
and toward all the saints ….
For I have come to have much joy
and comfort in your love,
because the hearts of the saints
have been refreshed
through you, brother.
Philemon 5, 7

May we, too, be refreshments to others, in these hot days.