Floyd Cardoz won Season 3 of Top Chef Masters. He donated his $100,000 winnings to the Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in memory of his father.
Cardoz began his career as a salad cook. Within three years, he became the sous-chef, then chef de cuisine. He made a name for himself running the Indian fusion restaurant Table in Manhattan. After testing positive for COVID-19 on March 18, he was being treated at a New Jersey hospital. He died Wednesday at the age of fifty-nine.
A colleague said of him, “I feel so terrible for his family and his two sons. All the cooks and managers that worked under him. Easily one of the most beloved people in the business.” He added, “As great a chef as Floyd was, he was a better person and amazing dad.”
What to do when you cannot see God’s hand
Chef Cardoz’s passing reminds us that the numbers being reported daily are people, each of whom God loves unconditionally (Romans 5:8).
The good news is that we have a Shepherd who not only loves his sheep but who feels what we feel and hurts as we hurt. After calling himself the “good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11), Jesus said of those who trust in him: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (v. 28).
If an object is in your hand, I cannot touch it without first touching you. Nothing can come to you that does not first come to your Savior.
In addition, Jesus’ statement that “no one will snatch them out of my hand” applies to us. We are not holding onto Jesus—he is holding onto us.
Scripture teaches that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Once we are “born again” as the children of God (John 3:3), we will always be the children of God. My sons will always be my sons. They may not want to be my sons or act like my sons, but they cannot reverse their biological birth.
It is the same with our spiritual birth.
So, as we face this ongoing pandemic, let’s remember that we are loved by a Savior who hurts as we hurt and who holds us through every pain and grief we face. And let’s remember that the greatest gift we can give our suffering world is the opportunity to make our Shepherd theirs as well.
Babbie Mason sang the truth:
God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don’t understand
When you don’t see his plan
When you can’t trace his hand
Trust his heart.
Why do you need to trust Jesus’ heart today?
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