Spaghetti Lucky #8 (AKA Jesus is like Celery)

For the first 25 years of marriage, Mark was all about my Spaghetti....Ragu with meat sauce with lean ground beef. That's it. It was easy and quick to make, the kids loved it...the dogs loved it....so, in my book it was a keeper.....we usually had it once a week...it was one of the few unshakable constants in our otherwise ever crazy, hectic, often upside down world. However....I noticed over the last year that Mark was all of a sudden no longer "all about" my spaghetti.....he would fix a plate, nibble at it, push it from side to side, and would leave a large portion uneaten. "What's wrong, Honey....do you not feel well?" I would ask...."Just not hungry" was the reply the first few times it happened...then finally one night when I asked him about it again...."Nothing Personal", he said...."I just don't really care for it anymore."

WHAT???!!!! For the first 30 seconds, I saw red...at least I cooked!!....then, all of a sudden, I got a wee bit paranoid.(OK, a "wee bit" paranoid was an understatement....I flew into a "full blown PPP"....A Perimenapausal Paranoidial Predicament...) My thoughts began to unreasonably bounce about...Had he secretly hated it for 25 years, and not told me?....and if so, what else was he lying about?....Liking my hair?...The way I kissed?...Eternal security? Was he...(gasp)...A CLOSETED DEMOCRAT??? Did he secretly really like Barry Manilow, Twinkies, and Bermuda shorts?? (Things he "supposedly" abhorred.) My mind was racing, my heart pounding! Thank goodness for the telemarketer who called and abruptly snapped me out of my hormonal, mental rant...."NO, I DO NOT WANT YOUR FREE SATELLITE SERVICE, AND DO NOT EVER CALL THIS NUMBER AGAIN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!!"...(well kinda snapped me out of the rant...the telemarketer got the majority of the acidic ire bubbling deep inside my unbalanced, estrogen depleted soul....)The call, however, did divert my attention, some what, and allowed a smidgen of "reasoning" to come over me....

Once I sat down and thought about it,....It came to my mind that ever since Mark had Mono last year, his taste buds seemed to be changing....he was trying new foods out of the blue, and not eating things he normally liked...not just the things I cooked, but food from restaurants too...so I found myself not feeling so bad about his not liking the spaghetti, and regained a new found confidence in the solidity of my marriage :)

So later that night, we talked about it....and he remarked that he really loved my Mamma's spaghetti. So we thought about trying that next time. Unfortunately, she did not write the recipe down anywhere...so she carried it with her as she journeyed to meet Jesus seven years ago. So, I called my aunt who knew some of the ingredients....I remembered a few...and the next week, I tried it...Result #1...not it...too tomato-ey...so I went to cookbook after cookbook, week after week...trial recipes #2-#7....were OK, but not exactly the taste we remembered. I was so hoping that #7 would be my lucky one...and it was not bad at all really...just missing something.

As we were cleaning up the dishes, it hit me. Celery! She always put celery in her sauce! I actually remember my aunt saying that she thought that my mom might have used celery....but seeing how I am not a huge fan of it, I figured leaving it out was no big deal. I figured wrong. Tonight, we added celery...and the recipe for Spaghetti Lucky #8....to quote Goldilocks "Was just right".

So something I was told about, something I knew about all along, was the missing secret ingredient.....and when added, made a world of difference...it made the recipe finally, complete!

In a strange "Scarlett kind of way", let me say,....to some people, "Jesus is like my celery"....they have been told about Him...they have known about Him all along, He is the missing secret ingredient that they have been looking for to make their life complete....they simply just do not think it necessary to add Him in. How sad, how human....

So as I close tonight, I have a new appreciation for celery....and a renewed burden for those who know ABOUT Jesus, but do not KNOW Jesus....and on a lighter note, one less telemarketer that calls during dinner time....

As we simmer through life, make sure Jesus is listed as the key ingredient on your recipe card!

Blessings Y'all!
Scarlett