Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

In the kitchen after school

Monday, February 26, 2018

From Luke 6
Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.

We have a great recipe for mac and cheese. Deeply cheesy creamy mac and cheese. Margaret thought she would be the student and ask Jack and Aly to teach her to use this recipe (with a little help from Oma and Grandpa). So we stocked their kitchen, picked them up from school and ventured forth:

Aly is eating seaweed snacks one after another, sleepy, leaning against Margaret after all day kindergarten. Jack reads the recipe aloud with great inflections that surprise us all. A cup ... no a coupe! What does 1 T. mean? (You don't want to know, but we laughed out loud).

Aly sorts the cheese packages on the counter. "Let's make it extra-cheesy." Who wants to spray the pan? "I do." Aly sprays a stripe down the middle. "I don't really know how to do this." So Margaret-the-student helps her spray.

Jack is busy grinding a half-teaspoon of salt and quarter-teaspoon of pepper. Takes awhile. Aly pours in the rotini. The whole bag. "This is probably more than one hundred! I can use these for "One-Hundred-Day."

Aly and Margaret open two big bags of shredded cheddar. The videographer exults, "I love these large amounts. Look at that cheese!"

"Want some?" Aly asks. "No, but I sure like watching you play in it." She plays, she spreads it out.

"Perfect," she smiles. "Now you can smash your hands in there ... if you want."

Jack keeps on grinding salt.

He finishes the salt. Now he is grinding the pepper. Aly raises her thumb in the air. "Cheese is good!" Watching her take a taste, the videographer reflects, "Well. If there's too much cheese, just eat some." Margaret says, "Like little mice? Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep!" Aly with her mouth full, "Mouse loves cheese."

We are still waiting for the pepper. What we don't notice is Aly-eating-cheese, fingers full, bite after bite for a minute or more. No wonder she wasn't particularly hungry when it came bubbling from the oven.

Margaret fills the blender with milk and spices, and Jack pushes the buttons. He holds onto the top with all his might and then pours it all in the 9x13 pan.

It's heavy. Jack is strong. The milk pours out fast. Aly finally stops eating cheese. "Whoa!" Aly said. "Holy mackerel!"

"Holy mackerel, Kingfish!"

Aly pours in the last bit of milk, and Jack scrapes out the blender, and they take turns stirring. All our eight hands shape the aluminum foil lid. Jack sets the oven timer.

"What can we do in the meantime?" We all know that answer. "Make cupcakes." With a marshmallow on top of each one, if we have enough.

Concentrating, Aly counts out twelve marshmallows. "We have one more," she says. More than enough.

Thirty minutes later the mac and cheese comes out. Aly is disappointed. "That does not even look close to mac and cheese!"

Margaret, our student, talks to the macaroni, "No no no no, here's what the deal is. I give it a little ... say, 'Come to the party, everybody come to the party." She and Jack stir up the pan. "Some of you are staying all by yourselves in the corner and just not acting right. Everybody gets in the party, in the hot tub, then you can put all the rest of the cheese on top!"

Aly is rolling her eyes. She whispers to the cameraman, "This is boring!" But her eyes sparkle as she slumps in the kitchen stool and sticks out her tongue at the camera. I know I must be laughing. Perhaps she knows she is stealing the scene.

The student reminds her teacher, "Are you going to spread some cheese, Aly?"

"Sure." And she does. The oven's hot, the cheese is soft, and now there are over two pounds of cheese in this boiling pot. "Don't forget the corners," Margaret whispers. "And then we'll sprinkle on the parmesan."

This is the tricky moment. The fun is done, but the work is not. Jack moves on, "We can watch Mall Cop 1, that's what we should watch!" The cameraman compliments him, "Your mind is everywhere, Mr. Sandel." "Thank you," he says.

"Stay with this cheese," I suggest. "As best you can."

Jack bows and cries out, "Will you marry me cheese?" He salutes the stove.

Margaret echoes her teacher, "I'm in love! I'm in love with the cheese. I never met a cheese I didn't like." (Oh yeah, except the stinky ones)

Jack was nine on Saturday. Aly will be six in May. They are learning their way around the kitchen. Pressed down. Shaken together. Together we keep learning how to measure our lives.

Lord, in my joy I live to eat. I'll give anything sometimes for that bowl of soup. But when I go a little deeper, I want to eat to live. YOU are my hiding place, you are my loaf of bread, you are the wine of my life. Teach me the joy of fasting slowly and praying with face uplifted to thank you for this day. My daily bread. You are our good God, and we are learning to be your children.

Devotions Archive

In the kitchen after school

Monday, February 26, 2018