Marriage, the perfect chili of God

Sunday morning finds me how I like to be found.  Cooking, cutting, blending, marinating.  The oven is on, there are two things on the stove.  I'm cooking chili for our after church meal.  Call it "lunch," call it "dinner."  It's the meal we eat when we get home, and hopefully eat enough that I don't have to cook a third meal this day.  

Relax, day of rest.

     So far, my rest has looked like getting out of bed at 5:15.

Prayer.

  Breakfast cooked, small people cleaned, dressed, groomed. Cooking, and cooking, and cooking.  There was enough steam involved to fog up the windows so we cannot clearly see out.

     Normally, Four Year Old Child and I bake gluten free cornbread to go with the chili.  I do not have the cornbread mix, and I am not willing to use up the gas and energy to go to the grocery store this morning.  I do have a gluten free chocolate cake mix in the cupboard.  We will have chili and gluten free chocolate cake today.

  It's not perfect, but it's good.

     Marriage is like that.    

     Chili is different every time I cook it.  It takes a lot of time, because I have to start the beans soaking the morning before.  By the time we sit down to eat, you would never know that the beans had ever been hard rocks which would break your teeth if you tried to bite into them.

     I put all of the ingredients in and let it slowly low cook together, let the spices marinate until they are indistinguishable one from another.  Until together you get the tang and the sweet, the savory and the hearty, confluence of satisfaction.

 Calm down appetite, you are well satiated.

     In all of the world, you will not find two people perfectly matched, but given time, you will find that marriage makes them indistinguishable.  It's not that we were ever exactly alike to begin with, but that as we began to marinate, we cooked to a combination of all our own spicy and savory, both changed in the slow simmering process.  Sometimes and often, it only felt hot, it felt like pressure, which by definition is pain, and yet we were softened. 

Marriage, the perfect chili of God.

After church, we come home and I serve second meal.

It tastes mellow, sweet.

We have seconds,

and then chocolate cake as dessert.