Food Brings Us Together

I’m standing over the stove, smelling the lentil soup starting to heat up. I add the next ingredient and start into chopping the carrots. Cooking has a calming effect on me most of the time. (Now, baking on the other hand…) As I chop I start to think about where this recipe has come from. Who made it for me first and who I’ve made it for since. One thought keeps circling through my head.

Food is what brings us together. (Which quickly turns into “Food is what bwings us togever, today.”)

But seriously. Food is my connector piece to all those I’ve known and a lot of good memories.

A few weeks ago, Katie mentioned that the kitchen in the BVS house is the central hub of that always changing family unit. People come, people go, but we always have the kitchen to gather in. I’ll take it one step forward and say it’s also the meals that happen in that kitchen and in kitchen’s around the world that bring us together.

It makes me think of the gospel of John which I’m currently studying in my New Testament class at Lancaster Theological Seminary. We’ve talked about how a lot of Jesus’ conversations and teachings happen around food. He’s invited to meals by friend and foe alike. Martha is busy in the…kitchen?

Food is a central hub. The smells, the tastes, and the physical action of chopping, shredding, and mixing have memories, thoughts, and love in them.

This specific recipe I’m working on comes from Kristie Brockway. She made it for the kids and me one night when Cat and I were babysitting. She and her family are the first ones to pop into my mind as I work. I send them love and happy thoughts and hope Anna doesn’t completely forget who I am, though she probably has.

Then, as I work, I think of the countless times I’ve made this recipe since for others and for myself. I think of the BVSers of the Elgin house, both past and present, and send them love and happy thoughts, as well as prayers for patience in the meals to come at the house. I know that they can get…interesting.

The recipe I’m using is always a little different. If we have leftover zucchini and squash, I throw it in. If I’m on my own, maybe I’ll throw in some mushrooms. Today, I throw in some potatoes. It’s the same base, but it changes through the years as we all do.

We grow, we change, we move from place to place, but at our core, we come from the same stock, the same base. We are children of God, all of us, brothers and sisters. Some of us just have a little more salt or oregano than the others. ;-)