D is for DESSERT

My wife has a bit of a thing for desserts. Not really about eating them, you understand, more about making them and she is willing to try any new recipe that floats across her antennae. She reminds me of that wonderfully entertaining yet desperate housewife, Bree, from Wisteria Lane whose sole purpose for having dinner parties is to provide a dessert for all present to enthuse about. When we have a few friends round for a bite to eat, you can be pretty certain that two or three different concoctions will be revealed before their eyes, each one as appetising as the other and all very edible. For a long while it was the cheesecake for which she had found a new set of instructions. This wasn't the sort of which you get a nice, if rather small, triangular piece in a restaurant and usually flavoured with Baileys. No it was an altogether more substantial piece of pudding, a sort of a main course after a main course, if you know what I mean, full of raspberries, Philly cheese, condensed milk and jelly, I think, lying prostrate on a thick crunchy base. The whole thing was about four or five centimetres tall, but the problem was that it continued to lie prostrate inside your belly for the rest of the evening and most of the next day. So we quickly learned that, while our eyes had initially been bigger than our bellies, it was always better to err on the side of caution when deciding how big a slice to have, with the best rule of thumb being to go for exactly half the slice that you had had set your greedy eyes upon. Still, many a sucker got caught by its beauty and deliciousness but didn't allow for the way it seemed to expand inside the digestive system.

Crumbles were also another big favourite and even as I write, one lurks menacingly in a frozen state within its icy prison, but I guess, living in the middle of apple country, that is to be expected. And they were also delicious, though distinctly lonely and depressing without the addition of cream, ice cream or custard or indeed all three. But rumbling over the hill was another giant of the dessert world, looking remarkably similar to the raspberry cheesecake but light green in colour and with more than just a hint of lime. This was the piece de resistance at dinner parties for some time and almost always the freezer kept one in reserve for emergencies, though emergencies with at least a day's warning to allow for defrosting. Now this was definitely a social dessert for it was best eaten in company, preferably the company of ice cream and again there was a necessity to request a slice that was inversely proportional to the amount you thought you could swallow for this dessert disproved the old saying that you can never get too much of a good thing. I would rather remember it by that other phrase which my mum often quoted, 'good things come in small amounts.'


Since that time we have gone through a lengthy period of succumbing to chocolate mousse, without a squeak from us, though I did think I found a piece of antler in my helping, a delectable fruit salad just waiting to be accommodated on the palate and a pineapple and coconut dessert that I hope they make in heaven and now we have arrived at the latest creation from the kitchen which she simply calls 'Fog', though I can't exactly see where she is going after this! But I know where she's not! And that is to Pavlova Land. For to be a member of that society, one needs to have respect for not only birds but also the shelled food that they so willingly provide and unfortunately the road to Pavlova Land is strewn with birds who have no meringue nests! Anyway, I always reckoned my mother was the Queen of that land with her rich pineapple and cream topped Pavlova and there isn't any room for princesses. In truth, wife is a wonderful dessert maker. I just want to know why they always seem to be in the freezer.


I suppose we act a bit like that in our Christian walk too, when we see all the good things that God is willing to give us to enrich our lives and yet we are not ready to be filled but only take a little of what He offers and usually set it beside something else. Yes we do want to feel God's power and presence on a Sunday but maybe not if it clashes with a rugby international or a football cup final. We want to go and share in the breaking of bread in an evening service but only if we can be home in time to catch the big movie. And of course, the midweek prayer meeting or Bible study is essential though work has just been so busy this week and we haven't had any family or me time. Or maybe God is opening the door for service that HE has specifically earmarked for you so to appease that nagging voice inside your head, you give up a few weeks in the holidays. It's really God in tandem with something else you rather enjoy or won't do without.


And what does God say? 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.' That doesn't sound like sharing Him with anything else. Feast on His goodness and enjoy what He has prepared for you.