Old timers used rhubarb as a high-fiber cleaning agent. I don’t think they’d ever heard this verse.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean. (Psalm 51:7a) (Seriously, rhubarb does make one’s bodily organs move in unexpected ways.)

Rhubarb is more than a fruity pie filling. It’s not a fruit at all, but a vegetable from the buckwheat family. Try it in a stir fry. The trick is to slice it very thin and cook it with a bit of sugar (about three stalks rhubarb to ½ cup sugar) then proceed as usual. When you want to use it in salad, mix it with the sugar and roast it in the oven for a few minutes. Let it cool and use it as a kind of crouton.

This year, I made a rhubarb loaf, but I can’t give you the recipe because I modified it to the nth degree.

Someone bought butter for me (that story to follow!)  I ran out of sugar and borrowed from my neighbour; ran out of milk and used melted cherry ice-cream to replace it. So you see that the recipe might be awkward to follow. You can probably use a white cake mix instead. Just mix one cup of diced rhubarb into the dry mix before you follow the rest of the package instructions.

One recipe or another, it’s good to remember that rhubarb is a cleanser. It’s a reminder that we are to cleanse ourselves from what is not.

So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work.(2 Timothy 2:21, AMP)

Prayer – Lord, help us follow your instructions to the letter. Amen