Come Together

Yesterday I was hanging out in my dorm, and it's a rather quiet building. People seem to mostly just spend their days locked in their rooms doing homework. So I thought to myself, I should bring us all together! I should do something so exciting that everyone rushes from the building out to the back parking lot!

Well, it didn't go exactly like that, but anyway, suffice to say I set off the fire alarm.

As you know, my friend and I like to cook, and we make a meal for ourselves about once a week. So this week we were pondering what to prepare, and she had an epiphany! Tempura! Wonderful! And with our tempura we would make sushi! It would be a glorious meal! So off we went to the store and we selected all kinds of beautiful veggies to fry, and then we scoured the aisles for nori (seaweed wraps) and sushi rice. Perfect! We got back to campus, dumped our produce onto the lobby kitchen counter, and began the adventure. (on another note, did you know it's relatively difficult to chop carrots with a spatula?)

We prepared the rice, chopped veggies, lay out our nori, and soon, very soon, we were cutting up our very first sushi rolls. They were beautiful! They looked just like they should! They tasted just like they should! Perfect! So once we were confident in our sushi making ability we started the tempura. A dangerous task. I dunked the battered veggies in the oil and it hissed and brooded and sputtered. I now have polka-dot burns on my arms, but it was all worth it! The veggies were perfect!

We summoned some friends and continued making sushis and tempuras while they ate. We wandered over and munched with them for a bit. Soon it was determined we should fry some more veggies, at which point someone wondered aloud, "Is it supposed to be smoking?" The little bits of batter in our oil were making quite a fuss, and we watched with dread as the smoke curled its way up to the ceiling and tickled the nose of the smoke alarm. The smoke alarm, peeved about being awakened from it's slumber, began to cry, and of course, not just in the kitchen, but throughout all 150+ rooms in our building.

We lamented at the lack of windows and tried to chase the smoke out for a few minutes before the RAs discovered us and ordered that we leave the building. So we trudged outside for a reunion with many of our dorm-mates.

Looking back on it, I'm reminded of Jesus' first public miracle. At a wedding, Jesus' mother found out that the hosts had run out of wine. Uh oh! So she told Jesus, knowing that he's God and he can do something about it, and he did. He changed six huge jars of water into wine (which happened to be some of the best wine ever--John 2:10). Jesus took a food catastrophe and turned it into a miracle that ended up bringing people together--they were excited and pleased that the hosts gave them such great wine. I have to admit that setting off the fire alarm was more catastrophe than miracle, but still I was pleasantly surprised at the congeniality of everyone involved. I wonder if later the bride and groom admitted to their friends that they don't know where that great wine came from and they all had a good laugh. Either way, embarrassed as I was about interrupting everyone's day, I'm even more surprised by how loving everyone can be about silly mistakes. That's miracle enough for me.

Truly His,
Caroline