Amazing Grace (with Garlic)

I've been reading a lot of high literary theory as well as systematic theology and philosophy recently and in tackling the grand, abstract questions I sometimes forget the blessings of embodiment. This could be due to the fact that unlike others of you out there with lean abs, a love of physical activity, and metabolism to burn, I bear the burden of being portly, born with a loathing of physical activity that seems unable to be exorcised even with much fasting and prayer (okay, the fasting part is a lie). And yet, today I was able to take a moment to reflect on the embodied life God has given me and how good that can truly be.

I didn't make the chicken stew from scratch but I did authentically defrost it in the microwave and put it to boil on the stove. And before she left for work, my wife pulled out a recipe of drop dumplings from her favourite cookbook, Food That Really Smecks! I should have known or felt that some divine encounter was going to take place because such things happen when making, eating or even thinking about dumplings. While the stew was coming to a boil I mixed the cup of flour with 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and the same amount of salt, cut 2 tablespoons of margarine into the mix, added a teaspoon of parsley and several good shakes of oregano. I was about the add the half cup of milk when I felt called by the Spirit to grab the garlic powder and give it a few good shakes over the mixture.

By this time the stew was boiling so I put it down to simmer and dropped the dumplings into the pot, put the lid on for 15 min. and sat back on the couch. The busyness of my past week seemed to crash through the windows at that point and I found myself again swept away in a tide of "lofty" concerns.

Then the timer went.

I grabbed a bowl and scooped myself up a good portion of chicken stew and parsley-garlic dumplings and went back out the couch to look out over the cityscape out our third story window. The smell of the stew would have been enough to tempt me to break my fast (that is, if I ever actually had the self-discipline to fast in the first place).

I held up the bowl in front of the window and watched the steam curl in on itself and dissipate even as I tuned into the words of the song I had playing on the CD player, "Amazing Grace, I feel you coming up slowly now, like the sun is rising, heat on my face...".

And I was truly thankful for my meal, even the bit that I dumped down the front of my shirt. Thankful in a way I haven't been for a long time. The words "amazing grace" have many connotations for me and many memories associated with the singing of those words but now I have a smell to go with them... garlic.

God of all Creation, thank you for garlic, and dumplings, and re-heated chicken stew! Amen.

[NOTE: To my Reformed friends, cooking with garlic won't turn you into a Pentecostal... think of it as, say, Creational].