" 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." - Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV)
I remember my mother as I prepare meals for my family now.
“I don’t know how to cook and I wish grandma taught me because she cooked well,” I often tell my son whenever he likes something I have cooked. Opening cook books and with the availability of many cooking blogs nowadays, I try to recreate and somehow, manage to copy a particular meal.
Taking a pause from sewing a masterpiece for a particular client, the dressmaker’s (my mother) breaks consisted of scouring through her pots and knives, after going to the market with her bamboo woven basket she filled with what she would make for that day for us. Day. After. Day. She chose this huge “kawa” (big wok), I would say her favorite among her pots. I knew when she selected that, she would be concocting a huge dish, not just for us, her children, but some to be given away to relatives, neighbors, and some friends, far or near our house. That was how she was. She labored in front of a hot fire under that “kawa” as she started sauteing, then adding ingredients one after another until the good aroma arose from that huge wok and got carried all over by the wind. She never demanded for me to help her. She would just ask for me to cut some vegetables or prepped other things when she needed an extra hand.
“Do and finish your homework,” she would often say. Innocently, I never knew at that moment how much I was missing when reading or solving math problems than assisting her in the “kitchen” or standing, ogling at her “kawa” being used in the backyard because it needed an open space. Those were the days when she would tell me to add a handful of potatoes or other vegetables, or a pinch of salt or sugar or pepper. There were no exact measurements. But her cooked meals were always great and people would often ask her how she made them.
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| kawa |
I left the country and finished school. Until one day, I had a rendezvous with my parents and remembered to ask my mother about a particular recipe she used to make and I missed.
“Just grate the papaya. Add a little bit of vinegar and sugar. Then, put some raisins and carrots. Taste it. If it’s still sour, add a little bit more sugar…”
“Mom! It seems hard with no measurement.”
She laughed. I couldn’t oppose her infectious laughter as she was the expert in home- tested and many good recipes.
My mother has been gone for almost 22 years now. As I prepare daily meals, I taste her hardship of preparing what to make for my family as she did for us. It isn’t easy. Especially now that the prices of commodities are a lot higher, I try to make nutritious but budget conscious meals. In between my chopping I try to master now and re purposing leftovers, I now know that my mother’s talents of sewing beautiful dresses and her great cooking which she often shared to welcome guests, loved ones and friends, and to bless sick ones who couldn’t get up to make a meal was her God given ministry. She always created and cooked things with love. She was the aroma that people missed when she passed away.
“This is good, mom,” my son uttered as he tasted the kung pao tofu I made.
I know I don’t have that talent before. But God has shown me that there is nothing impossible when we ask and when He grants anyone to have a particular talent and becomes a ministry, then, nothing is ever too late to learn and bless others in return.
I want to imitate my mother… And I want to imitate God...
“Don’t pray that God would teach you how to love like He loves; pray that He would fill you with Himself and that He would love in and through you. Don’t pray that He would teach you to have joy; pray that the living God full of joy would enter into you. Don’t pray that He would teach you how to be peaceful; ask for the God of peace, the Prince of peace to infill you. Because if you try to imitate in your own strength, you will be a miserable replica. But if you allow the impartation of Jesus Christ to overtake you, suddenly it all works because it is Him imitating Himself, and He is very good at being God.”
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