A Little Something Sweet

My 94 year old Mom and I had a walk down memory lane this week, straight to the the cookie shelf in our hometown grocery store.

Mr. Charlie Painter ran a fine establishment on the Main Street of Seaboard, North Carolina. The building was part of the tiny downtown and abutted the bustling sidewalk. There were a few awning covered steps that lead up to the door which opened into a snug, well stocked space. Regular shoppers were greeted with a familiar scent, a mixture of fresh bread, sharp cheese, and the assorted smells of the butchery in the back. The old wooden floor creaked hello and stock boys and grocers called out greetings. It felt like home.

The register area and exit sat just a few feet from the entrance due  to the long rectangular layout and housed a clanging register and odds and ends of assorted bookkeeping and store keeping necessities. Nestled among all of this were large cookie jars, emblazoned with the label "Jacks." For a penny  (before the price hike to 2/5 cents) you could reach your hand inside for a crisp butter cookie (with a hold in the middle excellent for twirling on a finger),  a coconut cookie, or a lemon cookie. They were crisp and sweet and the perfect little something to consume on the stroll back home.

Alternatively, on the cookie shelf proper, one could find enchanting kid=sized packages of Nabisco Snaps. Their boxes were about the same size as their neighboring Animal Crackers and they came in Chocolate, Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Ginger. Of this batch, Ginger was by far the most exotic. They had a distinctive crisp tang of true ginger backed up with a mild sweetness. For a kid my age, they ranked behind the more familiar sweet treats, but were often my mom's favorite and so being, often won the right to come home.

Years later, I rarely found myself around ginger snaps until I went on a Cub Scout outing with our friends, the Hartleys. Al was the of  leader of the pack and his wife, Anne, was gracious enough to host our factious assemblage of boys at her family home in Ebony, VA for camping/swimming festivities at nearby Lake Gaston. While there, she and I  visited Ebony's mom and pop grocery store and memories of Charlie Painter's came flooding back.  So many things were the same, the smell, welcome, the small town feel. When we headed to the checkout, ginger snaps and sharp cheddar cheese accompanied us.

Anne asked me if I'd ever had them together? Heresy! Cookies and cheese together? Never had I heard of such a thing! But she showed me by example, breaking a small piece of bright yellow cheese on top of a crisp ginger snap and WOW! The contrast of the smooth, creamy, yet tart cheese brought out the tingling spice of the cookie. A match made in heaven!

This Christmas, my friend Laura, tucked a big container of ginger snaps in my generous Christmas basket and I when I discovered it, I couldn't get to my Harris Teeter fast enough to pick up cheddar cheese slices. Over the holidays when things became too frantic I slipped into the kitchen and had a ginger snap topped with cheddar, a taste of bliss on a stress filled day.

Now, I can't imagine not pairing these two.. They have become a "thing" to me. They are two distinct elements that are now a "new creation."

To many of us, January, with it's talk of resolutions and new envisionings, is welcome. It offers hope and belief that we too can become something more (or less, if it resolutions include diets!) But this idea of doing over, doing better is a comfort to our painfully human bodies and souls. January offers us our own chance to be a new creation!

It's an idea that is familiar. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

Let this idea of a New Creation guide us as we look ahead to 2020. How can we take this verse to heart? Our most immediate thoughts turn towards our bodily health - how can I lose weight, have more energy, eat better, feel better, exercise more? But perhaps even more we are called to  evaluate the health of our "spiritual heart?" How can we grow a heart for Christ? How can we grow a heart for God's people? For all God's people? How can we live into being a "New Creation?"

Father, help us see ourselves more clearly. Lead us to see with your eyes, the good in all people. Help us to help those in need in your name. To love instead of hate, to join, instead of divide, to lift instead of dismiss. Amen.