9/29/2009

Just Like My Father?

The sky is overcast with the threat of rain, and the temperature is beginning to drop. Humm … it feels a lot like Fall to me. But that’s OK. There’s a loaf of bread cooling on the counter in the kitchen, and I’m whittling my way through a mountain of laundry. So much went on hold when the water problems started. Now wait a minute – don’t think that we’ve been wearing dirty clothes for a month. I’ll never get the “Suzy Homemaker” Award if that rumor got out. (I probably wouldn’t anyway!) It’s just that this is fall, which means pulling out all the blankets and cold weather clothes to get ready for the season to come. This is the time for preparations. Everywhere you look, farmers are gathering the harvests, firewood is being cut and stacked, and CraigsList is brimming with ‘give-aways’ that folks don’t want to trip over during the winter months and don’t want to pay to dispose of.

For me, the call is to the kitchen. I normally don’t like to cook; but in the fall, my German blood predestines me to make enormous amounts of foods of all kinds. Pies, breads, soups & stews. Cold-weather foods – comfort foods. I talked to Daddy yesterday, and as usual, we were talking food. He’s an old German. He loves food and loves to cook. We compared notes on making preserves and argued over the assorted garden vegetables that are ‘fit to eat’. He taught me the best way to cook dove. When we get on the phone, more often than not we will compare grocery store prices between the north and the south. Want to make an old German sweat? Clean out the pantry. Want to make ‘em panic? Unplug the freezer. I’ve maintained for years that my parents could withstand just about any national emergency for at least three months as long as they were able to keep electricity. Daddy would, however, get depressed because he wouldn’t be able to ‘make his rounds’ at the local grocery store.

Jesus told His disciples, “And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.” Luke 12:29

I suspect that verse was omitted in the German Bible, or else it was written in tiny little print. Mama reminds me frequently how I’m ‘just like my Daddy’. And I guess I am in a lot of ways.

I’ve been thinking. I’ve heard it asked before, but I have to stop and ask myself again, can the world around me see my Father God in me? Am I ‘just like my Father’? Do I seek Him out often enough for guidance and direction? Do I resemble Him in the way I act and talk? Do I try to love the unlovable as He does?

Probably a good question for me to write on a sticky and put on the mirror would be “Can others see my Father in me?” Just some more food for thought.

Have a great day, and may the Lord bless you.

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