12.3.10 Pizza Palooza with John & Kim
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| John & Kim's gorgeous (& FUN) gourmet kitchen |
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| Gorgeously decorated for Christmas...got us in the spirit for sure! |
We had such a wonderful evening! One of those great evenings that you cherish, knowing they are special. When we arrived to their gorgeously decorated home...such wonderful Christmas cheer abounded and Kim announced it was Champagne Friday! Love it! We each toasted to friends, food and all things wonderful and then got down to pizza making...but only after Scott read us a heartwrenching and joyful *story of a young boy sharing the love of Jesus! Only fitting as we are in the season of celebrating the gift of our King of Kings.
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*Pastor and his son:
Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.
This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring rain.
The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, 'OK, dad, I'm ready.'
His Pastor dad asked, 'Ready for what?'
'Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out.'
Dad responds, 'Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring rain.'
The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, 'But Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?'
Dad answers, 'Son, I am not going out in this weather.'
Despondently, the boy asks, 'Dad, can I go? Please?'
His father hesitated for a moment then said, 'Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son..'
'Thanks Dad!'
And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract .
After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted.
Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered.
He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer.
Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him.
Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch!
He rang again and this time the door slowly opened.
Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, 'What can I do for you, son?' With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that * JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU * and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE.'
With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave..
She called to him as he departed. 'Thank you, son! And God Bless You!'
Well, the following Sunday morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, 'Does anybody have testimony or want to say anything?'
Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.
As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face, 'No one in this church knows me. I've never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.
So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and broken-hearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, 'I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.'
I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly...
I thought to myself again, 'Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me.' I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.
When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you!
The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU .' Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.
As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more.
You see-- -I am now a Happy Child of the KING. Since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell..'
There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated....
He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.
Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love & honour for his son... Except for One..
Matthew 10:32 says:
'Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven.'
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While a few tears still welling in our eyes, it was time to cook! With the ovens heating up, each with a pizza stone...I rolled out pizza dough...while all our yummy ingredients were set out. John had prepped bacon (smoked and canadian), sausage & the most moist, delicious roasted chix breasts...fresh mozzerella, pepperoni and our favorite go-to store bought marinara. Scott had been the pizza shopping elf earlier in the day...we had his freshly carmelized onions and mushrooms, fresh pesto from our summer basil, lots and lots of cheeses, fresh parm, pineapple, and what the boys would find out were the hottest jarred jalepenos ever...they both swore they were fresh and couldn't have been pickled.
I don't know if life gets better than moments with friends & family, preparing food together, creating, sharing wine & laughter...enjoying the joy of watching parents revel in the joy of their children...feeding teenagers freshly made pizza and seeing big smiles...then watching them play "polar bear" club in the frigid back yard pool, daring each other to jump in...a moment where you can glimpse a splinter of the joys that await us in heaven.
Speaking of heaven...the evening was capped off with the most decadent chocolate mousse I've ever even conceived existed...it has a secret ingredient, which I won't yet divulge without the chef's consent...but suffice it to say, it was devine...served with fresh whipped cream...I told John it needs a new name, because "chocolate mousse" is just not sufficient.
I must honestly confess that I most often experience a fair bit of anxiety when we either entertain at our home, or are invited guests for dinner with friends at their homes...just a weakness of character in me...a sign of insecurities...I've always been a "people pleaser" and too concerned with dissapointing others, or not being "enough" in some way is the best way I can express it. It's something I will probably work on the rest of my life, as I seek to become more mindful of pleasing the Lord instead of others....all that said...tonight was a night where despite my insecurities & anxieties I was able to enjoy the company of gracious friends, "put myself out there" so to speak...sharing food that I hoped was enjoyable, but mostly just hoping to enjoy sharing fellowship with others...and knowing that who I am, whatever that may be, can be enough. I hate to miss out on what is most important in life, building relationships with people, just because I can be afraid...so tonight was more than just pizza's, wine and dessert...I hope it was another step toward trying to become who I really am....
And what a great way to continue to discover who you were meant to be, than by sharing a pizza party with precious people, including my most precious, my Scott....the one with whom I am never afraid to just be myself.
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