Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Sipping the Overflow of Joe!

This an antique document of over 50 years old!
Photo by me also an antique!

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray... Luke 11:1


You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing. (Psalm 23:5 MSG)


I have always loved coffee but as my girls have grown to enjoy it too, I love it even more! While growing up I had a divided home! By that I mean Dad was a pot a day coffee drinker and my Mom loved hot tea in the morning. I think my grandma was the one that whetted my appetite for the delicious brew when I was just a little girl. I remember her having her coffee cup sitting on a saucer so to catch the overflow as she heaped sugar and cream into it. This is where I come in! After she stirred it just right, with the saucer catching the extra, she would let me drink the sweet concoction right from the saucer since it had cooled enough for me to drink. It was heavenly, as I remember it! I felt privileged to partake in this somewhat forbidden, adult treat as we all listened to Arthur Godfrey on the radio. In my childish mind I determined that when I grew up I would drink coffee in a cup, and like grandma, a saucer would catch the overflow. With the coming of giant mugs, I don't often drink from a cup with a saucer but when I do, warm feelings of my sweet grandma comes to mind.

As I think of that coffee of my youth, I wonder how much I would have loved my "Joe" if bitterness was the overflow from her cup. My grandma was a divorced woman when divorce was far less accepted than it is now and because of her divorce she found herself penniless, unskilled and uneducated. She had to take jobs that nowadays would be considered menial but throughout my life growing up she was always there for my family and me. At best, in the eyes of onlookers, she was a pretty ordinary woman or at worse she was known as "that divorcee" but for me her cup always overflowed with love. She had many reasons to be bitter and fill her cup with the biting bitterness of hate that betrayal and hurt sometimes brings but she chose the better, which was love. I am so glad I was there to drink in the overflow and it was sweet!

In 1968, when I was twenty years old my sweet grandma, Mary Helen Camp passed away. And there, still hanging on her wall was a faded piece of paper I gave to her when I was in second grade bible school. It was a lopsided pair of lips made of red construction paper with these words scrawled across the top... TEACH US TO PRAY! There was three things I knew about my grandma, she loved me, she loved God and she indeed learned to pray!

You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing. (Psalm 23:5 MSG)

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