NOT WHAT YOU EXPECT!


Peggy told me the other day if I continued to write about food and the places where we have eaten,  people would begin to think all I ever thought about was food.  Although food does fill a large part of my time I occasionally have other thoughts.  I bring this up because this post will begin with a thought of food, but I hope it will end by giving you food for thought.

Peggy is a wonderful cook and by wonderful I mean fantastic.  Guess what......This wasn't always true.  In the first years of our marriage I remember trying to eat raw okra,  burned butter beans and doughy biscuits.  But she continued to try and it soon paid off.  Then I was put on this diet of low fat and very low sodium, and after 40 years, she all of a sudden had to learn to cook all over again.  Oh sure you say,  anyone can cook something eatable but the trick is to cook something that taste good.  Try it sometime.  It's not as easy as you may think.  But once again, to her credit,  she continued  trying  and I must admit she has gotten pretty good at cooking healthy style.  If fact she has become so good at it that many times I again eat to much.  So good food is what brought this blog to my mind.  Peggy is always looking for something new to cook.  She will find a new recipe, and then substitute this for that and take this out and put that in ( for health reasons ) and prepare us a new and most times a wonderful meal.

Last week we were sitting in the living room.  I was reading a book or something and she was looking at new recipes and all of a sudden she asked..."Have you ever had salmon stew?"  Now our diet consist of much fish and chicken.  In fact that is about the only meat we eat.  We eat a lot of fish and when I say a lot....I mean a lot.  Not fried but baked or broiled.  And not frozen or canned but fresh fish.  As I thought about salmon stew,  it started to sound good.  Of course she would use fresh salmon,  not canned and she would leave the salt out.  And no canned corn but frozen corn because they use a lot of salt in canned foods and she would use other fresh vegetables..  You get the idea.  It's what I call abstract cooking.  By the way,  I promise this post  isn't about food.  Anyway,  Peggy prepared the stew and made some low sodium low fat corn bread for dinner.  As we were eating she looked over at me and said  "What do you think?"    As I shoveled another spoon full into my mouth I said   "This stew is great,  I love it."  Peggy's response caught me by surprise.  It made me stop eating for a second.  It triggered something in my mind that I knew would be the subject of a blog.  She said,  "It's OK,  but it taste like salmon to me."  Imagine that...Salmon stew that taste like salmon.  I replied..." Yep,  salmon stew that taste like salmon and did you notice the corn bread taste like cornbread?"

But what she said made me think.  Not of food.  Not about the recipe she used.  Not even about how good a bowl of that corn bread with butter milk would taste.  It made me think about our expectations.  What did Peggy expect salmon stew to taste like?  Surely not like pumpkin pie and whip cream.  I thought about expectations and hope.  You know,,,they're not the same thing.

I thought back to the times when I was a small child and Christmas was  just around the corner.  Back then Sears and Roebuck would send out a big catalog through the mail each year.  It was what we called the Christmas wish book.  Mom would tell me to go through the catalog and circle what I wanted but to remember Santa had a world full of kids so I couldn't have everything,,,,I couldn't be greedy.  So I made myself a rule.  I could only circle one thing on each page.  As I think back, I ask myself..."Did I expect to get everything I circled or just hope to get everything?"  Of course I didn't expect everything.  I may have hoped for everything but my expectations were much more realistic.  Then I thought about the farmer.  How he plows and plants the seed and fertilizes and hoes the weeds out of the field.  Does he hope for a harvest or expect a harvest.  I believe he expects a harvest.  Why you ask?  Because he has done what he should have done.  He has an interest in that field.  Does that assure him a good harvest.  Not at all but even if he doesn't get the harvest he expects he will again plant the field next year.  And he will plant again with expectations.  If he doesn't get his great harvest but his neighbor  has a great harvest,  does that mean God loves the neighbor more?  Now that opens a lot of questions doesn't it?  Does God love your neighbor more than you because he has more material things?  Does He love you more than me because I've had a problem with my health and you haven't.  We could continue to ask similar questions like these for days but the answer is easy if you study God's word.

The answer is in my shop.  Or that's where I found it.  Peggy went to Michael's one day and they were selling grab bags of merchandise that they wanted to get out of their store.  She bought a couple of bags and brought them home.  As we opened the bags we were shocked to see so many paint brushes.  They're out in my shop.  I have big paint brushes and small paint brushes.  I have fat paint brushes and tiny paint brushes.  I bet I have 200 paint brushes and everyone is different.  I use them all.  some more than others but I have used everyone of them at some time or another.  You may ask.  "Where is this simple answer you were talking about?"  It's in the brushes.  We're like the brushes.    Some of us have a bigger role than others.. some of us have a tiny role but God loves us all the same and God will use us all.  You see...God is painting a masterpiece and he needs every brush...He needs you and me to complete the masterpiece.  He expects us to be ready to be used of Him.  And what can you expect of God?  His Grace,  His Providence, His understanding, His comfort,  His love  and so much more..These aren't things you need to hope for.  These are thing you can expect from God.

Next time you go to Home Depot or Walmart and see a paint brush take a second and stop....Say a short prayer thanking God that you are a part of His masterpiece. 

Merry Christmas.