Faith, Grace and a Handy Potato Peeler

Fun and food, the invitation promised. My neighbor, Gertrud, was holding one of those popular kitchen gadget parties, and I went, to be sociable.
Amazing, once you looked through the colorful catalog — most of these things are on the housewares aisle at our local Blue Hills Market. There, the smaller items are securely wrapped in tough plastic, and hang clustered together on hooks. Various kinds of containers and larger kitchen tools are jammed together on the shelves.

Most shoppers probably have breakfast food on the brain, or are headed for the fresh produce counters. Some clutch colorful coupons and are intent on finding bargains among the canned food. Few seem to take time to stop; most merely glance at the culinary accessories.

Here, at Gertrud’s gathering, the smiling young mother who is tonight’s expert demonstrator shows us each clever gadget and discusses how it is used, passes it around for us to handle, and lets us ask questions. I found myself signing up to buy several useful items, including a handy pie cutter/scooper-upper.

As Christians there is a spiritual lesson. Many outsiders view us hanging around in clusters at church on Sunday. They pass us by because they have other things on their minds. People just don’t know what they’re missing. Maybe they hear words like “faith” and “grace” but are more interested in a clever, new, all-purpose potato peeler for the kitchen.

Perhaps if we are more accessible and eager to “show and tell” Jesus we’ll have more people “buying,” like the women at the kitchen party. If we are smiling and demonstrating what it means to be a Christian, sharing in friendly terms how good the Lord is and how He helps us through tough times, and if we let them ask questions, maybe we’d have more “sales.”

It’s great to accept Jesus as Savior, and there are a lot of wonderful promises in the Bible. We want everyone to know the peace and joy that comes from knowing Jesus in a personal relationship. God’s Holy Spirit will teach us, remind us, and empower us to reach out and share the good news with others. People really need what we’ve got.

Our lives are to show forth “work produced by faith… labor prompted by love, and endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Gospel is to be proclaimed not only in word, but also “ in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance…”
1 Thessalonians 1:3 & 5.

Beyond being sociable and sharing some fun and food, if you and I were each a knowledgeable, caring demonstrator that might make the difference.
It did at Gertrud’s gathering.

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Author: Elaine Hardt ©2000

Hardt Ministries Int. Permission has been granted to print this Copyright message