While moseying down the aisles at the grocery store last night, I spotted the very unusual bowl my friend Zhela always serves her salads in. I was so tempted to purchase one for myself – but I know my salads would never taste as delicious as hers. Isn’t there some truth to food tasting better when someone else prepares it? I believe it’s true, but I also wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with that cool bowl she owns. I think it just might.
Zhela makes thee best salads, and creates her very own salad dressings that she also pours from the prettiest glass bottles. I must admit though, that I always wonder if there will be enough, because really – it’s not that big of a bowl! Recently Zhela brought a salad in that very bowl to my home for a gathering of about 10 women, and I just knew it wasn’t going to be enough. But after being passed around the table twice, that salad bowl just happened to “land” right in front of me. I helped myself to two servings one right after the other, and that bowl was still half full.
It was a miracle, right there at my kitchen table – the very kitchen table that has its own little miraculous story. If you know me even a little bit – you know that story, but I’ll post a link below just in case you don’t.
Zhela’s kitchen is the heart of her home, and her salad bowl the centerpiece of the table. The heartbeat of my home is my kitchen table, and I love having people over for Zhela’s salad. Oh gosh, did that just slip off my fingertips? LASAGNA! I meant to say LASAGNA! I love having people over for LASAGNA!
In my daughter-in-law Holly’s kitchen, you will rarely see her not wearing the brown and white checkered apron I gifted her with one year. She is always cooking up several meals at once while everyone sits around the island, Holly and I chatting it up, and the kids doing their homework. Everyone wants to know what’s for dinner, including me. Maci, wanting so badly to be big like Owen and Lyla – does her very own homework, coloring page after page in her Mickey Mouse coloring book. The heart of Holly’s home is the kitchen island. And from 3 to 33, everyone loves pulling up a chair.
Uncle Al once told me the most meaningful conversations I’d ever have as an adult would likely take place while doing the dishes, and not a holiday passes that I don’t remember him saying that. You see – doing the dishes is my spiritual gift, and when someone grabs a dish towel and says, “I’ll dry,” I’m just tickled! He was right – those are the best visits ever! The heart of Uncle Al and Aunt Jean’s home was the kitchen sink.
But I believe it’s the entire “life in the kitchen” experience that everyone finds meaningful. And it doesn’t matter if your kitchen is a two-butt kitchen or a massive gourmet one that fits 20 of your closest friends and family. Our kitchens should be the place in our home most saturated with authentic love, kindness, and hospitality, whether you’re eating on fine china at a table for 12, or slapping a sandwich on a paper plate at a table for two. Our kitchens should be a place where everyone feels welcome, and the love of Christ is felt. A foretaste of heaven, our kitchens should be a place where friends and family who pull up a chair can encounter Christ, showcasing the hospitable and gracious heart of God through face-to-face authentic relationships.
In a few weeks, I’ll be having dinner at Zhela and Mark’s house, digging into another of her delicious salads in her pretty blue bowl. And next Tuesday, I’ll help Lyla and Owen with their homework, color with Maci, and chat with Holly as she prepares dinner for her family at the kitchen island. I’ll do the dishes, encourage one of the kids to grab a dish towel and help dry, and we’ll remember these days in our kitchens long after they are gone.
Listen – don’t eat alone if you don’t have to. Come on over, pull up a chair, and enjoy some time with me at my kitchen table. We’ll share stories and remember together all that God has done for us!
Shall I pen you in? I’m sure I can talk Zhela into bringing the salad 🙂
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” Acts 2:46 ESV
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