Chaotic cooking

"There is nothing to eeeeeat!" Brie wailed dramatically the other night as we both leaned in to the refrigerator. I saw lettuce, cheese, eggs, and an assortment of salad dressings. Then she opened the freezer and it was packed full of kosher meats and ice cream.

Braving the wrath of my exceptionally-emotional Brie, I said, "Well, it looks like there is a lot to eat-"

"Noooo there's noooot!" she cried and slammed the door. She spun around a couple times and sighed deeply, and I decided it was best to be quiet and still. Clearly her soul was in tumult, but I also know that cooking is very good therapy for her.

She gathered some of her wits and said, "I do have an eggplant roasting in the oven."

? ? ? Really? Who does that?

"Ok, well that's... something," I tried to be positive. "What do you put with eggpl-"

"I don't knoooooow!"

"...How about you just make me an egg?"

"NO! You can eat eggs and eggplant together because that's like planting an egg and that would just be wrong!"

I'm not following her logic... Ok, ok, quiet and calm. I noticed a cutting board on the counter. "Did you chop up a sweet potato?"

"Yes, it's also roasting."

"Well then! Eggplant and sweet potatoes are roasting! Sounds like a good start." I do not feel like I am being helpful at all, but trying to stay encouraging.

We started to talk about our day, and as Brie processed her crazy life and got things off her chest, she began to flit around the kitchen in magical fairy fashion, chopping vegetables, boiling couscous, and adding this and that to the concoction. I love watching Brie in this mode. Pretty soon, what started as "nothing to eat" became a brilliant gourmet meal, artistically combined colors and flavors. It was like Brie was able to take all the chaos in her heart and translate it into something beautiful and delicious to bless others and bring healing to herself.

And I think that is something that Jesus loves to do too... When we are too crazy to be able to look at our lives and see anything of worth or value, he takes the chaos and creates something beautiful out of it that can make a difference in the world and bring us closer to Him.