A Parable of Unusual Ingredients

 

 

One Sabbath Day, the Family of Waldron returned from Meeting House to find a pleasant aroma wafting from their Crock Pot.  Aforetime, this was likely to be the aroma of pot roast, carrots and potatoes, but since my daughter hath developed the dread malady, Allergy to Alpha Gal, it was chicken and Black Beans that was stewing to perfection.

So it was that we sat down to dinner and ate and drank to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content.  When we rose, it was not because the food was all, but because our Starving Appetites had been defeated fair and square at the Dinner Table.

Then, my beautiful wife rose.  “The meal is not quite ended,” quoth she.  “For I have slaved in baking for ye all and now I have two pies – one is peach and the other custard.”

Now, it seemeth to me that the world is divided into three groups – those who like pie, those who like cake, and folk who are ill.  Verily, I fall into the camp of those who prefer pie and so I was pleased and called the meal Very Good.

My younger son asked for and received a piece of the custard pie. 

Perhaps he noticed and perhaps he did not, but the eyes of my wife and I were upon him whilst he ate this pie.  “Dost thou like yon pie?”  I asked him.

“Verily,” he saith.  “The pie is very good, and my mother is a great baker to make such a thing.”

It was then that we sprung the surprise upon him.  “Dost thou know what type of pie thou art eating?”  I queried.

“Yea, Custard Pie,” answered Elliot and then after a Pregnant Pause.  “Thou hast not poisoned it?”

“No, my son, but it is not just any Custard Pie.  Yea, it is pie made with the goodness of Zucchini Squash in it and we hid it from thee, for we know that thou believest that thou dost not like Zucchini and therefore would not have eaten it if we told thee Straight Out what was in it.”

My second son looked aghast, as if he had just been informed that the pie had Arsenic Sauce upon it.  Then, he had made choking sounds – trying to convince his laughing family that he really was In a Bad Way from Toxic Zucchini.

“Thou canst not fool us, nor dost thou need Activated Charcoal to neutralize that which thou hast eaten,” I said.  “For thou didst like the pie until thou knewest that it was made with squash.  For, the pie is Plum Good and thou knowest it right well.”

I thought much on the subject of hidden things and how our human tendency is to judge things on their appearance and our Preconceived Notions of how they are.

So it was that the Prophet Samuel, when he visited David’s father to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be king, judged the older ones to be more worthy.  They were stronger and older and seemed the more fair and yet, God had chosen David to be king in Saul’s place.  He told the prophet, when Samuel was contemplating one of the older ones, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

It is sad if there are things we miss out on in life and folks that we choose to ignore, because we have Judged them By Their Cover.  For lo, there is much more to a man than the length of his beard and whether he have a tattoo of a camel on his left forearm.

I pray that we might see and judge aright – even as God has judged us.  God has placed many people in our paths that are needful if we can but see past our initial judgment of them.  For mayhap we might even be able to enjoy a Wonderful Pie, even if it was made with a disagreeable ingredient.