Food for the Mind, Body, and Soul
Mary Evelyn and her children went on an outing yesterday to visit friends an hour and a half away. A day with my baby girl and her children sounded like fun, so I asked if I could tag along. When our children are growing up, we can sometimes get a little weary of days and days with only the company of little children. When those little ones grow up, a whole day hanging out with one of them is a day to cherish.
Wanting Mary Evelyn to be able to enjoy her girl time with her friends, I asked her to drop me off in the town’s downtown area, while she and the children met her friends at a park.
I didn’t know what I would find downtown, having been there only once, and that several years ago. As Mary Evelyn neared my drop-off point, I noticed an antique store and the restaurant where Ray and I had eaten on our previous visit. I grabbed Narrative of Sojourner Truth, which I am reading these days, and hopped out. Antiques, good food, and a good book–I knew I’d be fine for a couple of hours.
The antique store was my first stop. I wandered and looked and turned over price tags. I didn’t find anything I needed to bring home except cell phone photos of three “antiques” I wanted to show Ray.
One was a slow cooker just like the one Ray’s daddy gave us for our first Christmas. Ray’s mother had died six months before and I was touched that his daddy picked out that sweet gift for us. Though the appliance is long gone, I still use its little recipe book. Another “antique” was a teapot just like one we received as a wedding present from a couple we admired. The last one was a souvenir plate similar to one I bought at Hershey, Pennsylvania, when our children were little. Does this make me an antique?
After the antique store, I went back to the restaurant where Ray and I had eaten years ago. I had remembered good food, but had forgotten the powerful messages of its decor.
Greeting me, as I walked to the back of Andrea’s House of Breaking Bread to get in the cafeteria line for my meat and three, were these words painted on the wall behind the cashier:
As I waited, I spotted this prayer list near the front door:
Barbara the cashier told me to have a blessed day. I set my tray down and beside it I laid my copy of Sojourner Truth. It was somehow appropriate. Every person working at Andrea’s House of Breaking Bread is African American.
Decorating the white walls that surrounded the room were a band of red with the fruits of the Spirit painted in white, plus Bible verses, and three beautiful prints.
Below this verse was a print of an African American man sitting on a simple wooden chair preparing a Sunday School lesson:
Below this verse, the same man bowed in prayer by the same simple chair:
Beside this verse was an African American church service:
The exterior of Andrea’s House of Breaking Bread advertises “Food for the Mind, Body, and Soul.” I can testify that they practice truth in advertising.
While I ate, a doctor in brown scrubs and white tennis shoes came in. Someone greeted him with, “Hi, Doctor.” He said, “Tell Barbara it’s a little-ice-in-the-water day.” When he sat down to break his bread at one of the tables with the red-checked tablecloths, he bowed his head in prayer and then ate his meal.
When the doctor finished, he called out, “Bye, Barbara” and left, as I believe he has many times before, nourished in body, mind, and soul.
In pointing out these things to the brethren,
you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus,
constantly nourished on the words of the faith
and of the sound doctrine
which you have been following.
1 Timothy 4:6