In the Presence of God

    I didn't make it till midnight.... I almost never do. After a week of being sick, it was not surprising that by 11:00, I was done in. However, my presence would be felt. My contribution to the festivities was homemade chocolate mousse, thick and chocolately enough that we were all in a sugar coma after three bites.

     I had found the recipe on line and what set it apart from other chocolate mousse recipes was it was made with egg yolks that got cooked, rather than remain raw. Mousse is one of Matt's favorite desserts, and I hadn't made it in years, precisely because those raw eggs concerned me... that, and the fact that it takes a half hour of nail biting culinary awareness and skill to make mousse. However, since i suspected I wouldn't make it up till midnight, and Matt and Karissa were stopping back here for New Year's Eve, it seemed the least I could do. At  least as their cavities formed from the sticky sugar goo, they would remember me in the new year.

     Earlier in the day, I had spoken with sister Amy, who is a deaf interpreter. I told her about my painful wrists and she told me that wrist tendonitis is a hazard in her work. She knew how to avoid carpal tunnel and surgery.

    "Wear your wrist braces for a month,"  she warned, "Tendons are very slow to heal."

So, in the hopes that it is not yet carpal tunnel syndrome, I put on both wrist braces, and went to make my chocolate mousse.

     "Melt chocolate, butter, and water in microwave."

     This is easy!

     "Over low heat in heavy saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and remaining water till 160 degrees. Hint to you stupid people who don't know your way around a kitchen and yes, Vicky, I am talking to you, that means about 2  minutes. Do not stop whisking."

     This was getting less easy. Whisking is not hard, usually, not unless one is wearing bilateral wrist splints for bilateral wrist pain.

     "Pour chocolate mixture into saucepan, remove from heat, and while whisking continually, place sauce pan in ice till mixture hardenes. 5-10 minutes."

     5-10 minutes! Of whisking! oh dear, carpal tunnel surgery, here I come.

     However, I was enormously pleased at the perfect consistency as my  mousse began to harden. Oh...wait...there is one more line. I missed that when I glanced over the recipe.

     "Fold in whipped cream."

     Gulp. We didn't have whipped cream. As the mousse continued to harden, I knew it needed the whipped cream or I would have a solid blob of unchewable chocolate.

     "Quick Arvo, I need whipped cream and I need it within 5 minutes!"

He was not happy, but he shot out the door. I heard the neighbor shout Happy New Year and head over to chat but Arvo waved him away.

     Meanwhile, I took the pan out of the ice to slow the cooling time, and whisked, and whisked and whisked. The   minutes ticked by and the mixture grew thicker and harder to whisk. My wrists were aching, but at this point, surgery was a small price to pay for perfect mousse to welcome in the New Year. tick tock. tick tock.

     The phone rang. I grabbed it while wedging the sauce pan with my hip and whisking with the slightly less painful hand.

     "The whipped cream is frozen. Do you want that? Or the can?"

     "The can! And hurry!"

     Whisk, whisk, whisk. tick tock tick tock. ouch ouch ouch.

    The chocolate blob was coagulating on the spoon as my hero raced in. I snatched the whipped cream from him and sprayed it on the blob. Folding it in was similar to bending kryptonite. I had never known what an excellent work out making mousse could be. Somehow, miraculously, the whipped cream managed to soften the blob and several painful minutes later, I had 6 perfect little parfait glasses with lovely mousse in them.

     I put the mousse in the refrigerator and closed the door. My arms hung limply at my side, and my wrists throbbed. Matt texted that he would be there in half an hour. Arvo texted back, "Don't eat. Mom made mousse."

      "Yum," texted Matt.

      That day I had read a quote by Oswald Chambers. He had said that we are sometimes so busy looking for the miraculous, that we miss the presence of God in the mundane. I think that is true. I looked at the mousse sitting on the shelf and thought how simple it looked, what a small part of a large meal in a vast array of food. If I hadn't recorded this, no one might have known how much love, and yes, sacrifice, was contained in that tiny parfait glass. I suspect there are countless tiny examples of God's presence, of God's love that we overlook, not remembering how much sacrifice went into the seemingly simple ability to step into a new year in the presence of God.

     I passed out the mousse as we watched Matt' alma mater, UVa, play football. His new wife and he sang the UVa theme song, which is to the tune, appropriately, of Auld Lang Syne. I ate my mousse, which was a tad harder than it should be but not bad, and thought how lovely life is, how miraculous every breath, how blessed I am.

     Happy New Year!

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 NIV

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.