Friday, February 28

“Transition is a beautiful opportunity to allow God to minister to all of who we are.”
~Gina Brenna Butz, “Making Peace With Change: Navigating Life’s Messy Transitions With Honesty and Grace”

Oh, transition, I do not love you. But I do agree with this quote, because transition does the hard work of exposing our sin and our weaknesses. My kitchen loving heart has taken a hit with this move to the village:

1) We’ve discovered that one of my favorite cookbooks, “Laurel’s Kitchen,” stayed in Honiara. How am I to offer hospitality to my family without it? I am definitely a recipe follower, and this vegetarian cookbook is extra helpful here because we don’t have a lot of meat options.

2) Did you know that weevils find a jar of basil extremely favorable to build an apartment complex. The bottom of my nice big basil jar looks like dirt. I’m so sad! We thought that our full spice rack would survive during our eight-week absence. And we use basil a LOT around here.

3) Coffee. It starts my day on the dark front porch, Bible in one hand, coffee in the other. An iced coffee cools my afternoon when the sweat is pouring off my face and I just need a moment to sit and think. And yet somehow, we have arrived in Marulaon with only 1½ bags of beans. We’ve taken emergency measures by using half decaf beans and half regular beans in the early morning press. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

All these luxuries that I suddenly find absent?  They reveal my heart and remind me of just how easy it is to find my comfort and my joy in earthly things. Good things, sweet things, but gifts that God made to point me back to my Creator.