Lasagna Slinger
My mom cooked a store-bought lasagna for lunch Sunday (if you know my mom, this a very rare occasion). Everyone had already taken a seat as mom started walking the piping hot pasta to the table. About three feet away, the container began to bend. Mom, realizing what was happening, shifted and tried to catch it without burning herself, but it was too late; the lasagna splattered upside down on the floor.
Mom froze. She had just ruined lunch (at least in her mind). What was she going to feed her family? I could see the look of total devastation falling across her face.
Well, as soon as mom froze, David and I jumped into reaction mode. “We got this!” he exclaimed. I quickly grabbed a thin, flexible cutting board and carefully slid it under the upside down lasagna as David held the pan in place. Together we lifted it up off the floor and set it, still upside down, on a cookie sheet and gently removed the upside down bottom pan from the lasagna. Dinner was saved!
Mom, slowly moving from her frozen state back into the new reality of a salvaged lunch, was just amazed that we even thought to do that. Lunch was great. It didn’t look as pretty as before, but it still served its purpose and it still tasted pretty good (we just ate the layers that had been farthest from the floor).
As we were eating I couldn’t help but think about how our lives are a lot like this lasagna. Sometimes we start to bend when life gets too hot and before we know it, we are splattered face down on the floor. Sometimes, we get frozen in place and can’t figure out what to do next. Thankfully, though, that’s when God swoops in and says, “I got this!” He slides His strong arms underneath us and carefully plops us back into life. The glorious thing is that no matter what shape we are in, we are still His. He can still use us and we can still serve a purpose. Sometimes we aren’t real pretty and we are a falling apart mess, but God can still use us just like we are, mess and all!
After lunch I walked up to mom and said, “You can sure sling a mean lasagna.” We both chuckled and talked about how fortunate we were to figure out a way to save lunch. As I am typing this, I can’t help but be thankful that when I’m a lasagna slinger, Jesus swoops in and is the ultimate Lasagna Saver! He takes our mess and makes us useful for his kingdom’s purpose!
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us. We are pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:6-9
