MEANINGFUL MACARONI

As I begin this story the polite gesture would be to invite you over for dinner.  But since this event is appearing on paper, I’ll skip right to the main course of things.

Many restaurants have a menu and a presentation with which attract their desired customers.  My offering is quite simple.  I do have what I refer to as a “catering service” sprinkled with love.   Some of my most interesting dishes have exited my kitchen and gone down the street, sometimes around the corner, and then some of them have presented themselves as near as next door.

At this juncture, it would be important to share that God has SURPRISED my husband and I and moved us to Australia.   But if you’ve read my stories in dated sequence, you have already read the events leading up to our move.

So, without further explanation, I’ll head right to the heart of things that were about to take place in my tiny kitchen.   I won’t speak of my facial appearance, but I’ll be transparent enough to tell you that I was “not” in a positive place emotionally this day.   I was still grieving and missing Canada, along with friends, neighbours, and of course, my own personal “comfort zone.”

It was not an “I can’t wait to reach out to my neighbours” day.  To be blatantly transparent, I wanted to have a pity party and invite in everyone I knew.   However, I was new and I didn’t know anyone to invite.  And even if I did, they wouldn’t want to attend.   After all, who wants to come and dine with someone who is appearing very self-absorbed with the “poor me complex.”   Actually, I hate attending myself, but I was all alone and didn’t like it.

Then it happened!  God’s still soft voice echoed in my heart and mind.  I can’t recall His exact wording, but it was something like,

“You’ve got macaroni in your pantry that needs to exit your home.  Get with My program and make something to share with another.   After all, you’re not going to get to know and love your neighbours for Me (God) without reaching out and touching them.”

Don’t we crave hearing from God in a clear voice!   Well, His impression on my heart was abundantly clear.   Of course when His wishes and directives are “clear,” I’ve found it best and most advantageous when acted upon.

Scrambling to locate the pots and pans (remember, we’ve just moved and been in our domain not three weeks), so I needed to locate where I’d homed them.    All is moving along with progress.  Macaroni boiling, white sauce coming together at my direction, and grated cheese and bacon waiting to adorn the top.  

Within about sixty minutes this macaroni and cheese was ready for travel.  The journey wouldn’t take long as it was only going next door.  So no passport would be required for this adventure.

I left part of myself at home (the fearful part where I tell myself that this neighbour doesn’t know me where I’ve just exited my comfort zone again).    The other part of me, the outward self, explored about forty steps and there I appeared at my neighbour’s front door.

She barely recognized my face, but the mac ‘n cheese was a great cover-up, and besides, seeing what I looked like wasn’t at all important.  What “was important” was that she felt loved.   Her face lit up like a Christmas tree and willingly accepted the casserole dish.

I waltzed home, happy as a clam, and I asked the Lord to use it for His good purposes in building a relationship with this gal next door.  As a Christian you know, we carry about the “living presence of the Saviour,” by the Holy Spirit’s residence within us.   What a treasure in these earthen vessels.   It’s exciting really, because He yearns to “ooze out of the pores of our lives” to touch others and to show them He loves them beyond measure.  And, to top it all off, God likes using us, our hands and feet, in the process.

A couple days had past and the next door neighbor appeared at my front door with the empty glass casserole dish.   Her body language was  in high voltage and joyful “lights of expression” were favorably portrayed on her face.   I stepped outside to greet her, thinking that she would extend her hands with the empty dish.  That was not to be.   I found myself engulfed with arms around me and a tearful comment from her heart.  She shared how I had made her feel SO LOVED!

Mission accomplished!   She wasn’t aware of it, but her arms were embracing the love of the Lord Jesus.   I was just His “delivery girl.”

These encounters with people serve to remind “me” that God can and does DELIGHT IN THE DETAILS OF OUR LIVES.  And, that He longs to impress upon us from time to time, that He would like to extend His love to all who touch our lives through our homes, furniture, cups of tea, cookies, sandwiches, smiles, hugs, and casseroles like macaroni and cheese.  

Let’s pray and be alert to sense His nudges of encouragement to reach out with the “ordinary” so that He can make it “extraordinary” for His saving purposes in the lives of others.   Let’s allow Him to “establish our steps.” 

Proverbs 4:24  “Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established.” NKJV

Let’s work “with God” and not “for God.”  What I mean by this is that we allow Him to be in the driver’s seat, orchestrating the events of our lives, rather than being so busy with our own agendas.  

May I share a statement made in my presence years ago that continually rearranges my daily “accomplish list.”   It’s this:  

“If we want to hear God’s voice more clearly, we need to turn down the volume of our lives.”