cold spaghetti on a cluttered desk

What do you get when you eat cold spaghetti on top of a cluttered desk?

A break.

This mid-afternoon snack is punctuating an otherwise frantic and mentally challenging day. The noodles said goodbye to firmness, the meat sauce coagulated already, thanks to its stay inside the ref (said spaghetti was supposed to be my lunch yesterday). With a forkful of the stale pasta, I think of another meal I could have, maybe in a faraway beach somewhere. There, my newly-cooked pasta is served with a tall glass of juice, the kind with a decorative but completely useless tiny umbrella on top. I could be holding a book, with earphones plugged in my ear playing my favorite songs.

But I'm not there. Instead, the music I hear comes blaring from a generic speaker that came with my office pc, but it's music nonetheless. Michael W. Smith is singing for me, "This is my daily bread...And I'm desperate for You...."

Cold spaghetti on a cluttered desk. That's all I have now. Yes, things could be better but I'm not complaining. Because when I start thinking of what I don't have, I might miss out on enjoying what's in front of me—what I can feel, see, hear, touch, taste.

And I thank God. Because even the capacity to enjoy things, imperfect as these might seem, also comes from Him. The garden is not always abloom with beautiful flowers. Life does not always follow the script you have in mind. Sometimes you get the flu that renders you humorless and lethargic.

The taste of cold spaghetti might not be enough to fill a hungry stomach but the assurance of God’s love, with His mercies fresh every morning, is more than enough to fill a hungry soul. With that remembrance from Above, even the stale and day-old pasta can taste like the most delicious meal in the world.