The Potato

Two weeks ago it was our week to serve dinner at Blessed Hope.   After our menu was prepared I hit the road and went to my favorite fruit and veggie market.  My friends call it the United Nations.  I love the diverse kinds of food because the clientelle is so diverse.  We’ve tried so many foods that I’ve never seen before until I was standing in their aisle.  Googling food is not uncommon for me there.

Shopping list in hand (well, does on phone count? 😉 I’m cruising through the aisles when I see 50 pound bags of baby potatoes for $2!!!  What?!?!?! Menu change!!  Forget the baked beans, God just provided 50 pounds of potatoes for $2!!  I texted a friend, and got her a bag too for the church she serves dinner in monthly.

After the huge brown bag was lugged in my house.  After Mr. Football  carried the huge bag in the house like it weighed 2 pounds, we opened it and realized that the potatoes were in 5 pound bags inside the big brown bag. When we pulled one out…it had a Box Top on it!!  So my $2 potatoes have $1 worth of Box Tops on them. Thanks God!!!!

My boys weren’t able to come to Blessed Hope that night to serve dinner because of a football commitment, so I definitely needed the help wanted them to be included in serving by helping cook the food. I asked Puppy Lover to start scrubbing the potatoes while I cut them.

A few minutes into the scrubbing, he said “Ew..these have to be thrown away.” And turned to the trash can with 2 potatoes in his hand. I stopped him and asked why they had to be thrown away. He showed me bruises on the end of each of the potatoes.

I told  Puppy Lover that I could simply cut off the bruises and we could use the rest of the potato.  No need to waste it all just because of a few small bruises.

How often do I do this?  One bad thing happens, and I write off the whole day.  I make one mistake and trash myself with unkind thoughts.  I meet a person who I see one characteristic in that I don’t care for, and write the person off.

I think this is not only why God brought Blessed Hope into my life,  but praise Him, I love serving there so completely.  There are a lot of bruises on our friends at Blessed Hope.  I know I’ve served dinner to people as they are high or drunk.  Cigarette smoke billows off of some of them.  Toothless grins are common.  Worn clothes, unkempt hair, this is the norm.  Their bruises are easy to spot.

But mine?  Oh how well I can hide them!   Mine are in the recesses of my mind.  I can conceal, camouflage and dress mine up.  Unless you know me well, you’ll never know they’re there.  But oh, they are there!!!

And God sees them.  Knows them intimately, completely.

And He loves you and your bruises too.  And He loves my friends at Blessed Hope and all of their bruises too.  And He doesn’t want to throw a single one of us away.  Bruises and all.