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Spaghetti with meat sauce and some garlic bread.
Just another dinner...so I thought. That is, until the garlic bread.
Being Senegalese/American, I am used to living in a land of malfunctioning appliances, loss of power and water, and the general lack of modern conveniences...thus, I figured that included gas stoves. Perhaps, a lack of judgment.
The spaghetti dinner was turning out great...or so our guests declared. Apparently the welcoming scent of the meat sauce had wafted down into the general foyer as our dinner invitees arrived...
But, the garlic bread still needed to be toasted.
Having had previous experience lighting our oven, (thanks to blueberry muffins) I attempted to start the ancient piece of debris...no success. After a couple attempts, my housemate, having never used this particular appliance before, suggested giving it a try...gladly, I handed the matches to him.
What happened next is still a blur...As Jeremy reached in to ignite the burner, (and I stood closely over his shoulder) it happened.
Ka-BOOM!!
An EXPLOSION similar to a small bomb...the force of the explosion sent Jeremy (my housemate) and I flying backward, shattered windows across our house, blew the entire oven/stove onto its front and the next thing I remember was being on the kitchen counter and my friend crying out from the kitchen floor which was now covered in boiling water...
But this story is not about an oven, garlic bread, or drama...rather, about the grace of God.
Though the trauma of the explosion, the burns inflicted, along with the pizza boxes and computer paper covering our pane-less windows remind us of this night, the divine protection of God stands above all else. From our gas tank (directly next to the stove) not igniting, to the matches laying ON the oven door not bursting into flames, to our clothes not even getting singed, we experienced a miracle. A blast of God's mercy!
As I stirred the sauce and my friend prepared the garlic bread, did we consider the proximity of death? The face of eternity? We feel invincible...as if God owes us a certain number of years. The Word of God, however, clearly points out, "It is appointed to man once to die and then the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)
Regardless of our faith, (or lack thereof) we acknowledge death...but are we living for something which lasts beyond the grave or is our hope in this life alone? Paul shared, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (I Corinthians 15:19)
I'm thankful God spared my life (and that of Jeremy), but I'm even more thankful to know that on the day my short life ends, I have a living hope beyond the grave!
Still, another thought lies on my mind...do I LIVE daily in light of eternity? We are clearly told in II Corinthians 4:18, "...we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
May our love transcend preferences, differences, frustrations, divisions, cultures, nationalities, ignorance, impatience, and the like so that we may focus on living for something far greater than what we see. That our love would display a far greater hope!
Thus, as my alarm clock begins it's cheery BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP at 0415h, I smile...another day! To live, to laugh, to love! Another day to invest into the invisible.
Who knows, I may have to make garlic bread!
