Anointing Oil

 

When I was a kid, I loved tasting 'anointing' oil. 

Hold on, let me explain...

My mother would feed me a little bit of it when I was sick (cue James 5:14) and the taste of it seemed special, sacred, 'anointed'. I felt guilty about enjoying it- I reminded myself- this is serious business. It was for prayers, not for food. Even the brand name, 'GOYA' sounded exotic to me. I remember the sellers at Redemption Camp, sweating under the blazing sun, selling boxes of small oil bottles, bundles of pristine white handkerchiefs and bottles of water for religious purposes, pushing their way through throng of worshippers.

In my teenage years, one of my friends confided in me that her sister had recently fried eggs with anointing oil. This was a bit jarring for me. 'We were out of cooking oil', she said, 'so she just used the tiny bit of anointing oil left to fry some eggs'. Why was I so shocked? Anointing oil was after all- olive oil. I would soon realise that it was a staple in many foreign dishes.

During the early-mid 2010s era of natural hair enlightment- which I'd call a craze, as everyone and their mother was using food ingredients like avocado, mayonnaise, eggs and rice (yep) for hair treatments, olive oil became popular for the same purposes. I know a Ghanaian woman who swore by it- and her hair was very thick and soft. I started using it briefly, but could never keep up the habit (Look, call me a 'lazy' natural. I can only do the bare minimum- I have no time for anything extra).

As an adult, I would receive the anointing oil from the minister as a cross or dot on my forehead. There was a sense of comfort that came from receiving the anointing on your head directly from the minister, almost like a personal guarantee that your body was untouchable for the devil- at least for a while. Sickness where? I would try to resist the urge to dab at it later - it was melting my makeup and could run into my eyes- but doing that made me feel guilty; was I wiping off the protection? How long could I leave it on for? If there was any service you could miss, it wasnt the 'anointing service'- if you really wanted to fortify yourself against the devils never ending 'attacks'.

You may have seen the funny videos a few young people who grew up christian have made, about waking up at night to find your mother hovering over you with a bottle of anointing oil, bathing your forehead in it as she prayed. I cannot guarantee that I will not do that to my kids (sorry, not sorry). Seriously, what if that is the reason some of us are still alive right now?

Now being a pentecostal christian like my mother, I have my own small bottle of 'anointing oil', thank you very much (I mean a bit of olive oil I poured into an old plastic watter bottle, okay?), blessed by the pastor and all. I keep this separately from the bottle of olive oil I have in the kitchen, being a lover of mediterranean meals myself. So I guess you could say that the taste for olive oil never really went away ;)