Cherish the Food

The sweet, tangy, salty scent drifted into my nostrils and the smooth gooey sauce tantalized my tongue, the carrots were cooked just right. I had never had such a strange combination of flavors in one dish that created such perfection.
..................

Red wine and dark soy sauce....

Sound gross? Yeah. It is definitely one of the most random delightful, savory combinations I have ever tasted. So good. Amazing. Delicious. Mind-blowing.

Try this on for size...
In a pan cook up some chopped up chicken in lemon, garlic, white wine, black pepper combination and then add your capers. Once the meat is sufficiently cooked and tender, add it into a pot of cooked penne pasta and add your alfredo sauce. Mix the left over lemon, white wine sauce in and BAM! Italian in your face.

OOO!! More beta carotine for you!

Cut carrots into smallish wedges and coat in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, and either Indian seasoning (for a more exotic flavor) or Chipotle seasoning (for a more smokey fall flavor). Roast on each side in an oven for 20 min a side. Then die as you savor each sweet, smokey, spicy wedge of healthiness.

Mmmkk. So I live in China. Better add something Chinese to this list....
Noodles- I love noodles. So much. So cook those nice thin rice noodles in a pot of chicken flavored water. On the side in a frying pan cook up some eggs with some fresh chopped garlic, salt, and cracked pepper. Then take the eggs out and in the same pan cook up some fresh tomato chunks. After the tomatoes are soft mix all the ingredients in with the noodles and serve as your favorite cold evening comfort food- almost as good as mac'n'cheese.....

.....almost.

Wait! There's more!!

You know, every time I went to the fair as a child, someone got an elephant ear- they were amazing. I loved them. I loved them so much. Just before moving over seas, my sister and I went to the Florida State fair and me, not knowing when the next time I would be at an American fair decided to go all out and get multiple cups of sweet tea, popcorn, cotton candy, a turkey leg, funnel cake, and I do not even remember what else. My sister thought I was crazy, but I thought, "Hey, might as well enjoy it while I have it in front of me!!" (My bank account was not too thrilled with me though by the time I left the fair that night)...
Well. Someone had the amazing idea to make elephant ear pull apart bread. Hello. Brilliant much?
The whole process takes a bit of time, and I am not too keen on baking, but wow.
Warm, gooey, cinnamony, sugary goodness makes the wait SO worth it. Especially with a cup of coffee in hand and eggs in a basket on the side- gives that sweet/salty combination that makes for a killer breakfast!

K, so I'm done raving about how much I love food. I think you get the picture. The point of my passionate explanation about all these uh-mazing dishes is this... Some Chinese friends told me as I was going on about their wine/soy sauce brilliance, to "Cherish the food".

Jokingly, I told them I liked the phrase so much that I was going to title my next blog that. Well, here it is. :) No, really though. We were talking how people do not view cooking as an art so much any more. There is not that creativity poured out over the stove or oven any more. It's, "quick, whip something up cause we are too busy to enjoy something truly good and nutritious!"

I hate that. I love to enjoy savory, good-for-you food. I love it so very much.

Then I started thinking about it. And I transferred the thought away from food into the rest of my life. What do I cherish? What do I savor? I am quite passionate about my cooking, but am I that passionate about my Jesus? I am passionate about music, but am I passionate about Scripture memory? I am passionate about sports, but am I passionate about studying the Word and diligently searching to be more like Christ?

I know the answers to most of these questions. I know that I love my Jesus, I know that I long to know Him more. I know that I desire to drink of the well and drink in His wisdom to shape and guide my life. But I also know that there is a lack of diligence in my life.

Just like it takes practice, courage and work to perfect a recipe, instrument, or sport, so it takes practice, courage and work to maintain a good relationship with God. Keeping in mind that in ourselves dwells no good thing, so always giving credit to our Creator for the grace to grow more like Him...And just like I do not always get a recipe right, and occasionally I make a bad pass on the field (but only occasionally :P ), and sometimes I play the wrong note or chord, I do not always get it right in life. But that is okay- My Savior loves me anyway and just like when my roommates give me a second chance in the kitchen, my Father gives me many chances at whatever He gives me to do. (Best part about Him, though is that He walks me through the whole process. :)

Back to the phrase, "Cherish the food". I always thought this phrase meant, "savor, enjoy, embrace..." the food....then I found out that it means, "be thankful and do not waste the food because we did not always have an abundance of food" (referring back to historical events in China when food was scarce). This also should impact our view of God. Cherish Him. We did not always have His light in our lives. We were once lost in darkness, we did not know what it was like to have His Word in our hearts, lighting our paths, revealing our insecurities and giving promises abundantly.

"Hallelujah, all I have is Christ, Hallelujah, Jesus is my life!"

Cherish the Word.
Cherish Christ.