The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(Friends: the Orange Moon Cafe's superb recipe - if I do say so myself! - for cheese grits will be gladly forwarded to anyone who might like to try it. And thanks to Hugh for inspiration on this one.)
"Glorious Grits!"
A good friend and I just texted back and forth about grits, the ground corn product popular in the southern section of the United States (and growing in favor elsewhere). I mentioned that grits serve as one of the greatest confirmations of God's love for the human race (as long as we're not considering so-called "instant grits." If you buy some of these, cook and eat the box instead of whatever you find in it. Trust me. The box will be better).
"God… giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (I Timothy 6:17).
I have an interesting history with grits. As a child, I attended a kindergarten that served grits nearly every morning. However, they seem to have been cooked the night before (or perhaps even the week before). Rather than hot, buttery, and delicious, the cruel chefs of the school served them cold, hard, and detestable. I still feel queasy thinking about them more than a half century later. Thus, I would not touch grits as I grew older. "I don't like grits!" How many times I uttered those words as an adult, often adding with great passion, "I hate grits!").
In my late twenties, however, things changed. I stopped by a local fast food restaurant called "Colonel Dixie" (I kid you not!). Naturally, the breakfast of a place so called included grits, which did not look anything like the Frisbees I endured as a child. I gazed at them, intrigued, and then looked closer. Butter pooled on top of the mound from which steam and a most pleasant fragrance wafted. Hmmm, I wondered.... Finally, I gingerly lifted a forkful (well, a half forkful, actually) to my mouth.
Things can change in an instant (as long as we're not talking instant grits, of course!). I could not believe the taste and texture that graced my palette. Hard, cold, and horrid memories of grits dissolved faster than the hot, buttery, and delicious concoction I now imbibed with sheer delight. It's been that way for thirty or more years now, including yesterday, when Frances and enjoyed cheese grits with our breakfast. "I could eat these everyday" I said, echoing her comment from the last time we enjoyed the delight. Certainly we could, and if we did, every glorious grits experience would fill and thrill our hearts. Glorious grits indeed, the gift of a glorious God!
I share this with you because born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ must be prepared for changed thoughts, desires, and inclinations throughout our earthly lifetime.
"Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Regardless of how long we have been a Christian, we still require change. None of us will be perfected during this present earthly lifetime regarding our thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds. We ever require the change of growth, and sometimes we require the change of correction. Such realization comprises the very heart of the humility to which Scripture calls us. Regardless of how right we may think we are about matters - and we may be - we must still remain open to the possibility we are either wrong, or in need of enhanced understanding regarding even those things about which we are correct. Long held perspectives and ways may die on the altar of humbly joining the Psalmist in his plea for both correction and growth: "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults… Lead me in Thy truth and teach me" (Psalm 19:12; 25:5).
I'm so glad to report the gritty change and correction I received all those years ago about one of God's great gifts to humanity. And I'm so glad to report gritty growth in appreciation every time I lift yet another forkful to my mouth. Grits, glorious grits! But far more glorious, a loving Father who promises to transform us more and more into the likeness of Christ by His faithful work of growth and change…
"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
(Philippians 1:6)
Weekly Memory Verse
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulcher. But God raised Him from the dead.
(Acts 13:29-30).
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