It's Soup!

O

ne Saturday, I had a hankering for some homemade vegetable soup.  Although I had never made vegetable soup before, I was pretty confident I had all the necessary ingredients.  A quick look in both my pantry and my refrigerator confirmed my belief.  Everything necessary to make soup was right at my fingertips.

I remember my mother made vegetable soup when it came time to clean out the refrigerator.  Leftover vegetables, meat, pasta, and home-canned tomatoes were all she needed to make an incredible meal.  She would bake a fresh cake of cornbread to go along with it.  Believe me; nothing was better on a cold winter’s evening than a bowl of that soup!

Before starting my own pot of soup, I checked in with headquarters back in North Carolina just to make sure I had everything down pat.  Mom was home and after she gave me a few pointers I gathered all the necessary ingredients.  From my refrigerator, I took some peas I had left over from an earlier meal.  In the freezer, I had a bag of mixed vegetables and some corn, and from the pantry I took the last jar of canned tomatoes and my only jar of tomato juice.

I dumped everything into my slow cooker.  First I placed the tomatoes and the juice, followed by all the vegetables, salt, pepper, and a dash of sugar.  I placed the lid on the cooker, and set it on the lowest setting so it would cook all day long.  Throughout the morning and afternoon hours, I ran several errands.  Each time I returned home, I was greeted with the wonderful aroma of homemade vegetable soup. 

Late in the afternoon, I paid a visit to some very close friends.  When asked what I had been doing all day, I told them about my errands and the pot of soup that had been cooking since morning.  What followed was wonderful.  I was given some cubes of beef bouillon to add to the mixture so the soup would be just perfect. 

Afterwards, I headed home, stopping by the grocery store to pick up some cornbread mix to complete my dinner. When I arrived home, the soup was still going strong. I added the bouillon, prepared the cornbread batter according to the instructions, and waited until everything was ready.

When it came time to eat, I cut the cornbread, ladled some soup into my bowl, poured myself something to drink, grabbed a napkin, and sat down to the table for supper.  I was so excited over that bowl of soup! It tasted so good and hit the spot.  It was piping hot and all the flavors had blended together!  What started out as a bunch of individual leftovers and frozen bits of vegetables had turned into a truly wonderful meal.

While eating, I couldn’t help but think of my mom’s favorite passage of scripture.   Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” The soup in my bowl was a tangible representation of this passage.  By themselves, none of the items in the soup seemed very important or useful.  The few bits of vegetables, the small amount of macaroni noodles, and the two small bouillon cubes, didn’t look like much by themselves. In fact, I couldn’t have done much with them individually.  However, when combined with the tomatoes, they made for a very hearty and healthy meal.  What I normally would have thrown out, I was able to turn into something I could eat and draw strength from.

This is exactly the way God works in our lives.  Things that seem unimportant, things that we would like to throw away, and things that seemingly have no value are just the things God uses to enrich our lives and teach us wonderful lessons about himself.  Sometimes God takes situations that have proven painful in the past.  Sometimes he uses the leftover portions of life that others believe should be thrown away.  He uses small handfuls of pain, disappointment, and grief that we have placed on the back shelf of our lives.  He mixes these all together with the right amounts of his love, his grace, his forgiveness, and his mercy and he makes something wonderful out of them.  It may take a while and he may apply heat and pressure but in the end everything melds together to produce in us a wonderful result we could not have experienced otherwise.

Today, it may seem that your life is filled with leftovers.  You’re not sure what to do with them and you don’t even know how they can be used for God’s glory.  Let me reassure you that God can take anything, no matter how insignificant or leftover we consider it to be, and he can turn that into the most wonderful thing in your life.  His purpose is always to bring us into a closer relationship with him. 

Won’t you let God work in your life?  Slowly but surely, he will take all the leftovers of and make something wonderful out of them.  Instead of seeing a bunch of scraps and wasted items, God will look at your life and say, “It’s soup!”  When this happens, you will be a source of encouragement, strength, and spiritual nourishment for those around you.  Hmm, I’m getting hungry; I think it’s time for another bowl of soup!  Have a great day!