I have the world's best daughter-in-law. Two days ago, my daughter, Asherel, and I were in Richmond, (where my son lives,) to visit Virginia Commonwealth University. It happened to be my son, Matt's, birthday. Karissa, his wife, invited us for dinner, in the midst of her studying for the Bar exam, while Matt works countless hours as a new lawyer.
If it were
me with that schedule, I would have ordered take-out. Not Karissa. She made Shepherd's Pie with sweet potato topping, deviled eggs (Matt's favorite), and for the
piece d' resistance, Creme Brulee for dessert, with each of us using a special torch blower to melt the sugar on the top of this incredible concoction.
"It's so easy and fun," she assured us.
Easy?
She separated yolks from the white. whisked them with cream, poured them in special ramekins, placed the ramekins in a baking pan, added water so the ramekins would heat evenly, baked a half hour, cooled, put in the freezer to cool more, sprinkled sugar on top, let each of us flame torch our own ramekin to melt and brown the sugar, then sprinkled fresh blackberries and blueberries and carefully chopped mint leaves on top.
Fun...yes. Easy...not so much.
But easy is not really what my daughter-in-law was after. She was after showing love and hospitality and kindness and consideration. She was showing honor and respect in a palpable way. She loves God, and she desires to show His love towards us. She doesn't need to
tell me God lives in her heart -- it is evident in her behavior.
I have been struggling with some troubling issues of late, and her incredible kindness to me meant more than I can say. There is a reason God admonishes us to love one another as Christ loved us. When we do so, we can sometimes give a breath of life to someone who feels her lungs have collapsed.
Did I mention I have the world's best daughter-in-law?
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Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are
blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was
thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I
was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in
prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and
clothe you?
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native
among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in
the land of Egypt: I am the
Lord your God.
He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a
dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your
relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and
you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled,
the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay
you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your
reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Vicky, you are truly blessed.
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