PANDEMIC PANCAKES

Our just-for-grandchildren bookshelf has several “visiting grandma/grandpa” books with pasted-in headshots of the grandparents and grandchild. The fiction boy goes fishing with his grandpa and plants flowers and makes cookies with his grandma.  Not at our house! Grandpa scoops up ice cream cones and Grandma cooks Norwegian sour cream pancakes. The recipe honors the heritage of my grandfather, who died just months after I was born. The pancakes also royally feed the grands when we’re called to their home for early-morning kid-care when their dad’s gone to work and the mom has early morning staff meetings. 

Covid-19 concerns had cut her in-person staff meetings, so we hadn’t done the early breakfast duty at their home for months until one recent week. This time, she needed to shut herself away in a quiet room at a time when the boys—ages 2, 5, and 6—would be up and ready for breakfast. Oops. I had a long-overdue dental appointment in the middle of that time slot, and my husband was to meet somebody who wanted to buy a bike. But we’d make it work.

When we arrived with pancakes at 7 a.m., two were up and ready to eat as their dad slipped out to go to work and their mom went upstairs for her virtual conference. So far, so good. I left for the dentist at 7:45, and got back at 8:15 as Grandpa left. Just then, the oldest hollered, “The cat vomited on the rug!”  That crisis past, I checked the remainder of the pancake pile and decided the still-sleeping boy would have enough to eat.  Which he did—at 10 a.m., when he woke up just as his mom finished her virtual meeting. Whew! After a full morning of waitressing, entertaining, and settling spats, this seventy-something Nana was ready for her afternoon nap, a few hours early!

I’m glad the grandsons like pancakes! When little kids can be so fussy about menus, it’s a sure thing. I’m also glad that my “Bible-menu” over the years has included scripture portions that nourish and energize me. When I read my Bible in the morning and evening, I keep coming across reminders that God is in control, even in the most difficult circumstances. Like this: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7). 

This worldwide time of illness, suffering and death hasn’t caught God by surprise. It can be our opportunity to show the world what faith can do. Peter also said, “If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11)

I like “for ever and ever.” The means beyond Covid-19. Beyond my earthly life. Beyond the last pancake I will flip for my growing grandsons.  When the dreary drone of disaster on the daily news drags me down, this promise lifts me up.

Fake Food

It almost looks like a yummy breakfast, but it’s rocks, polished to look like the real thing. The “rock food” display is an annual favorite in the hobby building of our county fair—courtesy rock and mineral hobbyists. This year, seeing the display reminded me of another physically impossible “eating”—that given in Jeremiah 15:16: “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD Almighty.” This verse, from Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet, was one of the first scriptures I memorized as a new Christian. But I had to think a while about what “eating God’s words” was all about.

 Similar ideas appear elsewhere in the Bible. Manna, the miracle food that fell like dew for 40 years in the wilderness, is often referred to in spiritual terms. Joshua was probably thinking of that when he told the Israelites on the verge of entering the Promised Land, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth”  (Joshua 1:8). In other words, the scriptures available to them at that time were to be a daily intake, as manna was in the desert.  Psalm 119:103 continues the analogy: “How sweet are your promises to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Another prophet, Ezekiel (who came  long after Jeremiah) literally ate a scroll, which he found “as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 3:1-3).

But here’s the truth: not everybody finds God’s word “sweet as honey.” Their relationship with God is not deep enough or growing enough to find delight in God’s Word.  They may say, “Yes, I have a Bible, I even take it to church. Sure, I don’t read much during the week.  Life gets busy, you know. I know enough verses to get the essentials of it.” That’s about on par with licking petrified rocks.  Eventually you starve.

Another way of looking at “eating” God’s word is tucked away in Psalm 1. First, the psalmist commends the man who says “no” to the world’s way of doing life.  Instead, he delights in God’s word, “and on his law he meditates day and night.”  The idea is not that he gives up on sleep, but that he lives in constant desire and pleasure of God-awareness through studying the Bible.  A step deeper on the key word, “meditate”: the Hebrew word, hagah, means “to mediate, moan, growl, utter, speak.”  It’s an onomatopoetic term—in other words, it sounds like somebody groaning or sighing as the ancients used to do. It’s deep thinking that comes out through the throat and tongue. We don’t need any particular posture to hagah, just a desire to yield fully to God. When we read scripture, it’s not to check off so many chapters or verses a day. It’s to read thoughtfully, seeking a message that’s God-tailored for us.

A vibrant Christian walk is incompatible with spiritual malnutrition.  Or, as Francis Chan wrote in Crazy Love: “Lukewarm living and claiming Christ’s name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God” (p. 103). No licking “rocks.” Instead, seeking Christ, the Bread of Life. 

The new year is always a good time for a spiritual re-evaluation.  If you sense God challenging you to move deeper with Him, that's worth a hagah.