The Big Feast

See the message on the rolling pin?  It's from Proverbs 15:15 in the Bible (just in case you didn't know.)

Well, I'll get to that a little later. Right now, we're enduring some pretty severe weather. As in freezing! 

If you're one of these, you love it! But I'm not, so, I say,

BRRRRRR!

It's been like this for most of the last two weeks, but I know that there is some warm (this is comparative to 20 below zero with wind chill factor) weather coming in the next few days & it will be in the forties. Yea! 

November used to be one of my least favorite months, but in the later years, I am beginning to appreciate it more. Weather-wise it is a volatile month. & the landscape in this northern state has become rather stark & severe. But I rather like the color brown these days. It just seems to sort of soften the outside world, kind of like going from a color movie to black & white. I love both. So I temper the seemingly starkness outside, which can be more restful, to the lively & rich & energetic 'carousel of color' as sung at the beginning of the weekly Disney television program.

It's really quite a lot of fun to bring things together to express my personal creativity in this precursor to winter & Christmas season. I like fiery colors that make me feel warmer by even just looking at them!

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In all of the places that I've lived, I pick something that I like about the house, even if it's the only thing I like. In this house, it's the dining room. There are windows on three sides & it faces the south so there is veritable sunshine all day. & when the sun shines, even on cold days it is warm. It is meant to be an enclosed porch, but the house is so small (half the size of the house we moved from), I incorporated it in to the dining room. It can be drafty & cold on windy & cloudy winter days, but we use space heaters & a faux fireplace

It just warms the cockles of my heart. & feet! I love to sit in this room & watch it snow, or read, play games with the kids, like 'Bananagrams', Rummy, 'Mexican Train', or 'Skipbo'. It's fun for group games too when company comes for dinner. &, speaking of dinner, this is the most blest room to sit around the table, eat good, wholesome & delicious to the taste buds food, enjoy good fellowship & conversation, & laughter. We enjoy the entertainment guests right outside our windows in the form of turkeys & other birds dining at the bird feeders, deer, squirrels, bunnies,

 

& others, "So glad you could come." (Notice the Magpie in the middle.)

Lots of cups of tea & crafts making in this room too. & before too long, another great event to add to our book of memories...

which is this, the national day of Thanksgiving. & feasting!! Which brings us full circle to the post title.

Even looking at the picture my taste buds are salivating! Oh boy! I am about to buffet my body like Paul of the New Testament did! Okay, okay. My pronunciation of buffet is probably different than Paul's. In this circumstance, I pronounce it, 'buf-fay'! Or I could say that I'm going to smorgasbord my body, how about that? In any case, I'm going to enjoy 'The Big Feast'! & I'm going to enjoy, at least in part, the feasting like the festivals of eating in the days of the Jewish celebrations of the Old Testament, because I'm the cook & people will be coming to my house which means, said with almost tearful anticipation, the leftovers stop here! Ah yes! For a few days after Thanksgiving, the Big Feast goes on. It may take on different forms, like hot turkey sandwiches, Mandarin Turkey salad, turkey noodle soup, turkey sandwiches (with a cold glass of milk, yum!), & then, when that turkey is stripped to almost bare bones,  into the crockpot go the relics (that just sounds better) & simmers until it becomes savory stock or bone broth that is very healthful  for  the digestive system or for future soups or stews.

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I just want to insert here, that I never take for granted the life that was forfeited in order for us to have food. & I am very grateful for the Lord's provision of turkey & other meats. In heaven of course, there will be no more animals that will die. When we had turkeys of our own, they were never eaten. They were pets & part of the family. We weren't cannibals.  One Thanksgiving we brought our tom turkey named Thomas in & he sat at the table, with his little cone hat on that one of our daughters had made for him & had his picture taken. The turkey on the platter was unknown to him, thankfully. That turkey was purchased at a store & had no family connection with us. 

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Back to buf-faying or smorgasbording or feasting, or whatever you call it, there is also a continual feasting of another sort, as said in my title post. This kind of continual feasting does not make you gain weight, make you feel bloated or want to go into hibernation. The merry heart kind of feasting is life giving. The menu of a merry heart feast are things like,

Serving others, being a servant with no thought for self or gain. A merry heart is a reconciler, a peacemaker, someone who lives kindness, sharing, a heart that gives laughter, compassion, mercy, is generous in all their ways. The merry heart always has a welcome mat on the door of their home & heart & arms to enfold the weary, lonely, broken-hearted, that gives all who they come in contact with a feeling of belonging, love & hope. The merry heart brings the solitary into their own families. The merry heart has right directed anger towards injustice & harm or evil directed at the weak & innocent, while loving the perpetrator into the arms of Jesus who can set them free. The merry heart laughs a lot at wholesome humor & usually is pretty funny themselves. A merry heart is all of these things & more, because they are free. Free by Jesus & for Jesus. Free to be... all of the above. In the book "Mountains of Spices" by Hannah Hurnurd, there is a character named 'Mrs. Valiant'. She is a personification of a merry heart, always happy, always serving. Whoever comes to her house is served a cup of tea with maybe a muffin, & is blessed by the sweet ministering heart of Mrs. Valiant who listens, comforts & then always leads her guest to The Shepherd. We too can be those of the Merry Heart Sorority or Fraternity because all can cultivate this fruit, which is really all of the fruits of the Spirit wrapped up in one. Because who wouldn't be merry living these fruits? & what a face to show the world! Let me give you some synonyms for the word merry.

Cheerful, in good spirits, blithe, buoyant, bright, sunny, enjoyabe, fun-loving, glad, bubbly, lively, carefree, effervescent, carefree, lighthearted, hilarious, jolly...

& more! Don't you love to be around people who are like that? Don't you want to be like that? I do!! Because it is all lifegiving! Not only does a merry heart have a continual feast, but all of those they touch do also. & according to scripture, a merry heart also "...does good like medicine." It brings heart healing. Even physical healing. I read of a man once who was diagnosed with a type of cancer, so he shut himself up in a room with a stack of old Laurel & Hardy movies & laughed himself to healing! True story! We truly underestimate the power of a merry heart. So, let's set the table, get out the dinnerware, throw diet to the wind, & begin the feasting that comes with a merry heart. & why not begin it Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving = A Merry Heart

Ahhh. There's the recipe, equation, the answer. The Big Feast! Hear the dinnerbell?? 'Come & get it!'

Raintree Perk of the Day:

"And in this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of fat things..."   Isaiah 25:6

Can't wait!!