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I have always loved coffee. While growing up, I had a divided home! By that I mean Dad was a pot a day coffee drinker and my mom loved hot tea in the morning. I think my grandma was the one that whetted my appetite for the delicious brew when I was just a little girl. I remember her having her coffee cup sitting on a saucer to catch the overflow as she heaped sugar and cream into it. This is where I come in! After she stirred it just right, with the saucer catching the extra, she would let me drink the sweet concoction right from the saucer, since it had cooled enough for me to drink. It was heavenly, as I remember it! I felt privileged to partake in this somewhat forbidden adult treat. In my childish mind; I determined that when I grew up, I would drink coffee in a cup, and like grandma, a saucer would catch the overflow. With the coming of giant mugs, I rarely drink from a cup with a saucer, but when I do, warm feelings of my sweet grandma come to mind.
As I think of that coffee of my youth, I wonder how much I would have loved my "Joe" if bitterness was the overflow from her cup. My grandma was a divorced woman when divorce was far less accepted than it is now and because of her divorce, she found herself penniless, unskilled, and uneducated. She had to take jobs that nowadays would be menial, but throughout my life growing up, she was always there for my family and me. In the eyes of onlookers, she was an ordinary woman or, they knew her as "that divorcee." In all of my life, her cup always overflowed with love. She had many reasons to be bitter and fill her cup with the biting bitterness of hate that betrayal and hurt sometimes brings but she chose the better, which was love. I am so glad I was there to drink in the overflow, and it was sweet!
When I think of bitterness, I think of Naomi of the Bible in the book of Ruth. She had a broken heart after losing her husband and two sons, which is a horrible loss. As she grieved for these deaths, she became very bitter. She felt God had betrayed her by allowing her husband and sons to be killed in war. Have you ever felt bitter? Bitter at God? The name Naomi means pleasant, but this hurting woman changed her name to Mara, which means bitter. Naomi’s cup did not spill over with love but bitterness.
According to Psalm 23:5, God revives our drooping head and our cup (and saucer) with blessings.
My God had kept my grandma's head from drooping and her cup filled with sweet love.
“You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.”(Psalm 23:5 MSG)
jeanie@PROTECTED
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
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