The Thing of It Is

As we worked together, and as I heard her stories, and as she gently and often surreptitiously spoke discipleship into my life, some sparks of the Mabel spirit of hospitality began to burn away at the hard edges of my attitude about serving folks about the table. It had never been something that I naturally and joyfully fell into, whether feeding my family each evening, preparing holiday meals, or dishing up casseroles at the church pot-luck. But I caught a bit of Mabel’s joy (and hopefully a few of her skills) and began to cherish the memories of the laughter and love that flowed among us as we chopped vegetables, rolled dough, and shredded chicken. Although she taught me a lot about how somebody with as little talent and inclination as myself could prepare simple, tasty meals for lots of people, most of what Mabel left for me reaches far beyond the kitchen: reminders about the significance of the work we do every day, about serving God by serving the people he brings around us, about the goodness and holiness of food and our bodies, about the joy and delight we can and should enjoy every day, now, in this broken, beautiful, absolutely redeemable world.