God in the Mac & Cheese
God has a way of showing Himself in the sweetly mundane of life’s moments. In a passing glance, in a kind word, in sunshine pardoning rain… in a bowl of mac and cheese.
And He does this when we need Him the most –when we doubt Him, when we’re hurting, when we feel numb. He awakens us, commands our attention, shocks our senses, and replenishes clarity. He finds us where we are—in the mundane, in the routine of it all—and causes us to pause, to still our minds and our frenzied hearts, to see Him. He expands the myopic lens and shows us His love.
I stood there on the linoleum kitchen floor, sticky with summer heat, swirling butter in a bowl over a blue gas flame. My husband, Micah, and I were newly married, and were living in a house that we’d moved into prior to that time.
Living Together Premaritally
I was newly Christian when we had made the decision to move in together, and Micah, although raised Christian, had been far from his faith for a long time. We were deeply in love, healing from painful pasts, and finding great comfort and joy in companionship. And we thought we were being practical in this grown-up step of moving in together. We bought furniture and the materials of home, brushed our teeth over the same tiny sink, prayed over meals in our kitchen, and slept soundly each night between the same sheets.
It was several months before that we had found ourselves a church home, and it was several months later that a soon-to-be dear friend had called us out on our choices. We were told harsh words, words that stung, cut deep. Words that were true. Words that were laced with God and His intentions and convictions. But we didn’t see the thread and refused to acknowledge the truth.
Soon afterward we attended a church retreat, and we returned with a sense of renewal and great conviction in our hearts. God had awakened us to see our sin, and He urged us to follow the path He had intended for us.
And Then Getting Married
We married three months later in late June, with hands slipping in the heat and butterflies flitting. God paused the rain as we stood there that day, with our eyes and hearts dancing in parallel. We felt God’s presence, His blessing, and His forgiveness. And we didn’t care one bit about the heat and the sweat pouring down our faces.
We had made a covenant before God, we were made new, and we were made one.
Back to the Macaroni and Cheese (and the Doubt)
Several weeks later, after the frenzy of wedding planning and the repose and joy-filled days of our honeymoon, I stood there in the stillness of our kitchen doubting God.
Why?
What reason did I possibly have to doubt Him? What had He done to let me down? He had lifted me up in every possible way! Yet I stood there, hand on hip, blankly leaning over this bowl of melting butter. I was making cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese, Micah’s favorite meal regardless of the weather. I added a couple tablespoons of flour to thicken the sauce, which was clumping at the bottom of a glass bowl said to be stovetop-safe. As I lifted the milk and began to pour, I heard Micah running through the house and into our sun-washed kitchen.
“Hi!” he said as he smiled and hugged me from behind. He slowly pulled me into him, releasing me from the monotony of stirring cheese sauce. As he did, my head lifted away and my body started to lean back, falling into his weight. As I was falling, he said, “I just really had this feeling that I should be down here with you.”
As “you” left his mouth and found its way into the air, the air was also met by the sudden explosion of the bowl in front of us. Glass burst into clear sand, slivers, and shards in every direction. The cheese sauce simultaneously fell into the flame, causing it to spike upward as though the fire itself was surprised by the blast.
My face had just been over that bowl…inches from its circumference…inches from the impending explosion and flame.
Micah had been upstairs moments before when he felt a sudden tightness in his chest and the words, “go be with your wife.” He had listened. And suddenly, in the moments following the explosion, I was awakened to God with clarity restored. I held Micah, mouth agape and quivering, not knowing whether to fall on my knees, cry, or sound off thanks and apologies.
Twice we had obeyed God and twice He had shined his blessing on us. I never felt so undeserving and thankful and loved all at the same time.
Continual Blessings (and Revelations)
After almost 3 years of marriage, God has continued to bless us and reveal Himself in the sweetly mundane, and in the sweetly extraordinary.
I pray that God would bless and reveal Himself to you in the same ways.
Take care,
Rachael
~
About Rachael Clarke
Rachael and her husband, Micah, are dear friends. Rachael formed her relationship with My Beautiful Editor Lady in college when they were a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Journalists. It was love, understanding, and empathy at first sight. Their budding relationship went down a path of spiritual discovery that eventually led each to new life in Christ. Since then, there’s been a lot of hospitality, music, and reflection on Jesus-y things.
At a recent weekend get-together, Ray shared this story. It was so good that I asked her to share it here on Love Subverts.
Frailty by Tim Coons (on 
The Threshingfloor by Wovenhand (
Beautiful Things by Gungor (
Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens (
