Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
Have you ever made or eaten home made vanilla ice cream? It’s so great! And a vivid memory from my childhood. My grandma was famous (amongst her grandkids at least) for her home made ice cream. We would have it everytime we’d visit! She’d get out the ice cream making bucket and the ice and pour that little mixture in the ice cream container and start the think a crankin! (Now, by the time I was around, Grandma had the electric kind, not the hand crank. She was pretty hip…)
So after 10-15 minutes of gears grinding and metal scraping through ice (the little metal bucket in the middle that holds the ice cream mixture turns around in the ice that is in the bigger bucket the container is in…) Grandma would pull the plug, and start dishing out the ice cream! We were all so excited to eat it we couldn’t wait! (Well, at least I WAS!) 🙂
I would dip my spoon in and get a bite in my mouth as quick as I could… and the first thing I noticed was…
The consistency. Not really the flavor, though that too was unique. The consistency was different than your store-bought variety. It was softer, but not like soft-serve. It was smoother, but not as creamy as some over-processed varieties… it was… different. And that made it awesome!
Last Thursday afternoon we got to make our first home made ice cream of the summer. Over the past summer or two, we have not had much luck in achieving that consistency. 🙂 Mostly, we ate slightly thicker ice cream soup. 🙂 But this time, I think we got it! The ice cream is creamy, not crystalized, and it was even pretty solid when it first came out of the bucket. SUCCESS!! 🙂
And I got to thinking today, that consistency is quite important in life. We want our food to be the way it should be in our mouths. The way it should feel. The right consistency.
And it doesn’t just stop at food. We want our life to make sense. We want our daily routines to be consistent. Consistent with the day before, the week before… just pretty much par. Life is easier with the right consistency.
But life is not consistent.
I try occasionally to make sure that I have a consistent morning routine, hoping that perhaps that consistency will create some kind of harmony in my life for the rest of the day. Most often… it doesn’t. 🙂
I try to pray consistently for friends and family going through tough situations where they really need help. That consistency not only helps me, but others too. I try… but I fail.
I try to be consistent in my attitudes in life. In how I take in my surroundings and how I dish out my in-takings… but… again… I am just not getting the right consistency…
Every once in a while I get it right… like with my ice cream. And it’s great. But, really, life is not about OUR consistency.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” – Heb 13:8
He is our consistency. We are not. Family is not. Our routine is not. Our friends are not. Our jobs are not. The weather is not. Our favorite football teams are not. (Especially the Bills…) 🙂
There is a reason he is referred to as a Rock. He is just the right consistency in the middle of a bunch of failed attempts at home made ice cream.
I think today, I am going to keep my eyes open for His consistent-ness. And savor the rich, creamy, smooth, perfect consistency of his home made ice cream. 🙂