Leftovers

Cleaning my fridge out is always a memorable adventure. I start out with the intent of clearing every compartment of things I would like to trash and end up achieving not only a clean refrigerator but also an ambrosial meal.

After a while of shopping and stocking, I often find it necessary to clear the refrigerator of any existing food and groceries before restocking. This cleaning is easier when the items remaining in the fridge are already made food and drinks, I could easily find people to share that with. However, when those items are groceries, it becomes a bit demanding.

As a person who is completely anti-wastage, I try to ensure that I am only thrashing what is unfit and utilizing anything that appears even slightly useful so long as it doesn't comprise in quality. Of course, my easiest way of making those groceries useful is by cooking but achieving a nice meal with random leftovers can be a serious assignment. Since I'm bent on not wasting, I must come up with a way of making something good of those items.

One particular day, I cleared my refrigerator and found these bits of leftovers: A cup of frozen mixed veggies, two sticks of chicken sausage, about 100g of steamed prawns and 3 scotch bonnet peppers. Luckily for me, the quickest meal to make with these sort of items is fried rice and I went on to do that.

In no time, I washed two cups of rice, placed it on heat and because I had no broth, I seasoned the rice sufficiently with curry, thyme, cayenne pepper, ginger powder, salt, stock cubes and a bit of olive oil then allowed it to steam until the rice was tender. The sausage and peppers were minced and stir-fried with the prawns and mixed veggies. Then in a large skillet drizzled with melted margerine, I sauteed some diced onions, poured in the rice and stir-fried mixture, tossing gently to allow both integrate properly.

That was how I landed with a beautiful pot of Nigerian Fried Rice. My leftover groceries would have been trashed if I could not reinvent them into a thirsty dish. Although I enjoyed the process of making this food and especially the colourful result, my mind could not help but reflect on the majority of persons whose lives have been sent to the trash because they could not be revamped.

Many men and women, young and old have suffered a lot of things in life and have been pressed by choices that left their lives wasted. Some have been broken by the society and shattered by relationships that squandred their potentials and trivilized their big dreams. In our world today, we have persons who have been hurt and still hurting from all sorts of abuses and many have been left to carry the form of the things they have suffered.

A lot of these ones have received negative labels and are already discarded even while they are still alive. But alas, our maker is a God who likens Himself to a potter and is beyond able to make a marred clay into a desired vessel. As clay is, in the hands of a potter, so are these ones in His hand (Jeremiah 18:6).

Have you been hurt, broken or abused? Have you suffered loses, wounds and weariness? Have you been considered an item for the bin and not shown any real sense of value or worth? Is your mind burdened from all you have gone through and still experiencing in life? Do you feel out of purpose like those items that lurked in my fridge? Then come, this Great Potter wants to put you back together again.

He's not asking for a useful you, He can do an incredible lot with scraps. Unlike the groceries in my fridge, the life of man has eternal value and no matter how long it has spent in the refrigerator of this world, The Lord can make it into something great. Every one, no matter how shattered, imperfect, and near waste they come off remain pliable in the hands of God. The fragments of your life is a potential masterpiece in the nail peirced hands of Christ.

Christ Jesus has offered an invitation to everyone who is perhaps like leftover grocery. He said in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me all of you who are weary, broken and tired from the heavy burden you carry. I will refresh your life no matter how long you've been kept in the dregs. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment, taste, purpose and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.”

In Christ were all things made and in Him, all things are made new, revived, refreshed and reinvented; the captive of the mighty can be taken away and the prey of the terrible, delivered; leftovers and crumbs can be made into something delightful. Even if you are worm, like those tiny maggots that are seen in spoilt grocery, Jesus can make of you a sharp threshing instrument (Isaiah 41:14-15).

All you have to do is come to Him. If human cooks can transform ordinary leftovers into a great meal, think more of what Jesus can make out of a life surrendered to Him no matter how unseemly that life may be.

Peace!