I sauteed chicken in butter, a bit of oil, minced garlic cloves, summer savory, and the juice of a lemon tonight – and served it over a bowl of spaghetti, sprinkled with Romano cheese. I made it up as I went along. The boys, those left at home, raced for refills – not against each other, but their stomachs.
It was the best I’d made, they’d said.
They each wanted more – and I made sure there was more than enough. I’ve missed being able to cook like that, to create simple dishes that grow smiles. Not in a Martha-kind of way, but a Mary-kind of way.
The Christmas holiday was a flu-filled holiday, from beginning to end. Despite the Tamiflu, it caught me Christmas Eve – 101+ degree fever. The married son, his expectant wife and my granddaughter took a rain check for Muffaletta Christmas Eve. At Mid-night, my husband and I finished setting out the gifts and filling the stockings – and he prayed for me, prayed healing for me. There’s blessing in that – the prayer of a husband for his wife.
I grabbed hold of that prayer, the promise of Christmas Eve of a Savior born in a manger, come to save us and heal us.
“I believe. I believe. I believe,” I prayed all night long.
Christmas morning, I woke, feeling energetic, strong – and able to fix my grandmother’s Christmas Breakfast Casserole for my youngest. It’s his very favorite – so much his very favorite that all he wanted for his birthday was Christmas Breakfast.
Christmas Dinner was the Muffaletta’s we were supposed to have Christmas Eve.
It was unlike any Christmas I’ve ever experienced. That evening, my temperature went back up.
The entire holiday was like that – fevers, flu, tiredness, like mis-matched pieces to a puzzle. The unexpected Christmas gift was not so much the flu. It was change.
I felt it all around, change, like a seed before it emerges through the soil, into the brave, above-ground world, the faith of that seed to trust it’s creator that it is prepared for what is on the other side of the dark divide.
. . . a seed before it emerges . . .
. . . . that’s where I am, right now . . .
Life is full of those kinds of moments – of change emerging, both big and little, both event and daily.
Right now, it’s as though I’m at an empasse in an everyday Martha-Living with an opportunity to emerge into another way of living, an everyday Mary-Living.
“The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her”(Luke 10: 41-42).
I wonder how Martha felt? Was it too much of a change, to give up works for grace? To trust that everything would take care of itself in the right time, without “fussing far too much and getting worked up over nothing”? – that brushed with grace, Muffalettas for Christmas Dinner instead of the traditional huge spread fulfill heart-needs?
When God is in the change,
more than enough results.
When God orchestrates the change,
works are exchanged for grace
like a seed before the moment of an emerge
. . . . a change offered for grace . . .
still in the darkness,
holding out hope and faith hands
for Him to pull me through right!
(Last year’s Narcissus Paperwhites never emerged to bloom. This year, all tree of them bloomed. I took it as a letter of encouragement from a loving Father!)
Hi Maryleigh. Happy New Year. First of all I had to google a Muffuletta … never heard of it before :-); secondly, so sorry you’ve been unwell and hope you are feeling much better now; thirdly love your post, the seed analogy; fourthly, I’ve just written a song about Martha and Mary, yet to post :-). God bless xxx
I started a few years ago, buying a muffaletta “kit” from one of our local restaurants for Christmas Eve- because I cook Christmas Day Dinner. We have them in the afternoon before we go to church (unless we have the flu) – they take the pressure off (we only see our married son on Christmas Eve) – and we can just enjoy family, graze and focus on the reason for the season! It allows Mary Living!
http://poetrycottage.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/i-dont-want-to-be-like-martha-anymore/
Oh, yes, Liana – “I don’t want to be like Martha any more” – I will be singing your song in my heart and head for the next weeks as put these changes into action! I especially like how you said,
“Guide me to my place
Guide me to Thy feet
Guide away from all that takes
My heart from Thy heartbeat”
The lyrics of your heart are such a blessing!
Hi Maryleigh, I loved this post. I trust you are feeling better 🙂 The bit I love the most is “When God is in the change, more than enough results.” Absolutely!
God bless
Tracy
Feeling great, Tracy – so blessed by friends like you sharing their hearts – and your heart and God messages have so blessed me! Happy New Year!
I love your Paperwhites. Now I wish I had started some.
So sorry your holidays were flu-filled. 😦 It’ll be one to remember anyway, and one to make all other Christmases seem better in comparison. 🙂 I’m glad you found encouragement nonetheless from our loving Father! Blessings in your 2015.
It’s not too late to start the paperwhites. I had one left over and pulled it out of the bag Christmas week – and it’s growing! I bought them at our local nursery! I’ve discovered that there is a silver lining to things like the flu (when no one is in severe danger) – it’s that everything stops – and we stop! Even if it made Christmas late and out-of-the-box. Wishing you God’s sweet blessings in 2015, too!
i’m so sorry for the sickness that was swirling about – but so happy for the ways in which you found the beauty in filling bellies and souls.
I think that our sickness made me take Christmas out of the box, let tradition slide and the good things just flowed! So glad, too, it wasn’t a tummy sickness – and we could still eat! LOL
Happy new Year Maryleigh! Glad you survived the flu unscathed. Glad you have a dear husband who prays for you. Glad your boy only wanted Christmas casserole for his birthday. SO sweet. 🙂
So glad no one was in danger with the flu, Micey. When the boys don’t feel well, they sure do want love and attention (silver lining). A couple of the boys didn’t ask for anything – and God showed us how to bless them in unusual, unexpected ways. I think Christmas will be different next year – I’m not sure how – but I think this Christmas broke the tradition mold in a good way. I know the effects of Jesus birth affected December 25 in a real, living way.! Wishing you blessing in your New Year – real, right to the heart and soul blessing!
I’m so sorry that your Christmas was weighed down by sickness, Maryleigh. That’s something I’m so grateful my family escaped, because it was all around us in our community. And yes, it’s a hard thing to understand how to navigate doing what needs to be done and sitting at Jesus’ feet. I still get very caught up in the “doing” much easier than the “being”–especially when “doing life.” Thanks for your honesty here and the challenge that’s relevant to all of us, sweet friend!
So glad the flu (instead of the grinch-LOL) didn’t steal your Christmas! I think God just wrapped you up so good in His love and protection because of your beautiful faith and grace during your challenges the past year! Praying that both of us experience more Mary-Living this year! Blessings to you my friend!
Hello! This is my first visit to your blog. I am sorry that you were unwell over the holidays. How wonderful that your loving heavenly Father encouraged you with such a beautiful gift – blooms in time for Christmas!
Blessings!
Welcome to my blue cotton world! I’m so glad you came by! The paperwhites are my very favorite scent – and last year, they just sat there in their little glass flower pots and, well, it was like a dream not blooming. This year they grew so very tall, they tipped the jars over! LOL Praying your dreams bloom abundantly this year!
Thank you! What a beautiful blessing! I pray your year will overflow with goodness as well. Just as your paperwhites grew too tall for their jars, I pray that your cup would be filled to overflowing with all the goodness of God.
I’d love it if you’d visit my blog (my very first – launched in Nov – and share your thoughts with me!
incrementalhealing.wordpress.com
I love this, Maryleigh. We had our Cajun Christmas party after Christmas this year, in part, because of a flu invasion. Only one son came down with it but it was enough to keep up sequestered. And your Mary meal sounds so lovely.
I want to thank you for all the encouragement and good friendship you’ve bestowed upon me in the past year. I’m so grateful for a sister who knows all about this life with boys! Many blessings to you in 2015.
Moms of boys only have different bloom needs – one daughter in a house full of sons changes the language – and communication – and how we pass down what is inside us. I believe we definitely need to encourage each other. I think we both find the beauty, fulfullment and grace in the raising of these boys; it’s the post launch that seems a bit trickier. Your playdates have so encouraged me to slow down and go on adventures, simple adventures for moments with our God! Wishing you blessings in this new year!
oh, Maryleigh! I am so sorry that mama was sick for the festivities. Hope you are on the mend now. Happy New Year and many blessings to you and your boys, sweet friend.
Lyli, I’m always trying to teach my sons to find the silver lining when things upset the applecart – to find the silver lining in every cloud that comes by, but these boys don’t want always want someone to pull them out of the mud-pit happens upon them sometimes! LOL. I’m so glad I could live what I preach to them and find that silver lining! Blessings right back at you, Lyli!
Maryleigh, so sorry for the flu and sickness that settled in over Christmas time. I pray you are all on the mend. As you read in my last post, I get that whole feeling like your at an empasse. I’m still feeling it but trusting God. Whatever is next I know He is with me . . . He is with us. Much love to you. I am looking forward to a new year of getting to know you more through the words you share.
Beth – Let’s pray encouragement for each other as we work our way to the “new normal” before us. I’m putting you on a post-it on my bathroom mirror to remind me to pray (something a very dear friend who went home to the Lord a few years ago did)! What a story we will be able to tell next January!
‘I believe … I believe … I believe.’
Yep, there are times when that’s all our spirits can utter. And we hang on to His faithfulness, knowing that He hasn’t failed us yet.
Happy New Year, Maryleigh! And yes, yes, friend. Let’s hear it for more Mary-living.
I am so sorry your holiday was filled with sickness, yet His grace shines in your words as you found a way to be blessed through it. When God is in the change… it doesn’t meant it won’t be hard it means it will be successful. 🙂
Blessings,
Dawn
May God continue to encourage you while you wait for those seeds of change to blossom–like your paperwhites! Thanks for sharing this, Maryleigh. Blessings!
Beautifully pulled together – your Christmas experiences and God’s grace and love, changes and knocking tradition on its bootie! We did, too. Everyone is eating healthy now so I didn’t have to cook so many carbs (smile) and we switched to a goose because D-I-L had never had one. I didn’t bake one cookie and – horrors – bought the pumpkin pie. What shall we change this year? Because we also feel change in the air! For GOOD, bringing us to our wealthy place.