Thankful in All Circumstances
Agradecido en Todas las Circunstancias
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Monday, October 31, 2022
After 24 years of faithful service, our kitchen range was finally beyond repair. [Photographer: Mary Hunt Webb.*]
When our kitchen range quit working after 24 years of service, the repairman told my husband and me that he was no longer able to repair it and that we needed to buy a new one. After we bought a new electronic one and it was installed, I started reading the instruction manual that accompanied it. However, the manual was so complicated that I felt I needed a college degree in engineering to use it.
Sometimes I would press a button only to find the new oven performing a function different than the one I intended to use! On the old one, setting the temperature meant that the oven was on. Not so in the new one. After I set the temperature, then I had to press a separate button to start the oven heating. Moreover, there was no single button or panel to set the temperature. Instead, it required pressing several buttons before the oven started to heat.
Every time I felt myself getting frustrated with the new appliance, I tried to remember that for the first ten years of my life, I saw my mother bake with a gas oven that lacked a temperature gauge.
This stove with table-type legs is similar to the one my mother used to prepare our meals until shortly before my tenth birthday. [Photographer: Angus B. McVicar. Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.]
To obtain the correct temperature for baking, Mother adjusted the gas while she opened the oven door so that she could watch the flame inside the oven go up or down. Many recipes for baked goods in those days called for heat in the oven to be "very slow" (275°F), "moderately slow" (300°F), "slow" (325°F), "moderate" (350°F.), "hot" (400°F. to 425°F.), or "very hot" (450°F.). I obtained that information from The United States Regional Cookbook, published for the San Francisco Examiner newspaper in 1947.
I recall Mother's joy when she was able to buy a new gas stove with a temperature gauge so that she could set the temperature in the oven according to degrees of heat required! We ate fresh baked goods for years thereafter!
Even the oven that lacked a temperature gauge was an improvement over the coal and wood fires that the Israelites used to bake their bread. We find such a reference in 1 Kings 19:3-6 when Queen Jezebel threatened to kill the prophet Elijah. In that passage, the Bible tells us that, "3) Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4) while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, LORD,' he said. 'Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.' 5) Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat!' 6) He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again." (NIV)
The Bible doesn't tell us who baked the bread or where the ingredients or the hot coals came from. It only tells us that is how the bread was baked.
As the holidays approach and I consider baking cookies or a pie for my family, passages in the Bible show me how privileged I am to have a modern convenience that sometimes seems to have a mind of its own!
My pumpkin pie never looks as perfect as this one but looks more like the one in the upper right hand corner with the burnt crust. Thankfully, my family doesn't care as long as it's edible! [Source: Public Domain Pictures. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
I am thankful for the provisions and conveniences that God has supplied so that I may feed my family because the Bible advises that we should, "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18, New Living Translation)
BIBLE VERSES USED IN THIS POSTING
1 Kings 19:3-6 — 3) Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4) while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, LORD,' he said. 'Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.' 5) Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat!' 6) He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. (NIV)
1 Reyes 19:3-6 — 3) Viendo, pues, el peligro, se levantó y se fue para salvar su vida, y vino a Beerseba, que está en Judá, y dejó allí a su criado. 4) Y él se fue por el deiserto un día de camino, y vino y se sentó debajo de un enebro; y deseando morirse, dijo: Basta ya, oh Jehová, quítame la vida, pues no soy yo mejor que mis padres. 5) Y echándose debajo del enebro, se quedó dormido; y he aquí luego un ángel le tocó, y le dijo: Levántate, come. 6) Entonces él miró, y he aquí a su cabecera una torta cocida sobre las ascuas, y una vasija de agua; y comió y bebió, y volvió a dormirse.(Reina-Valera 1960)
1 Thessalonians 5:18 — Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (New Living Translation)
1 Tesalonicenses 5:18 — Dad gracias en todo, porque esta es la voluntad de Dios para con vosotros en Cristo Jesús.(Reina-Valera 1960)
Let us remember to be thankful for the provisions and conveniences that God has supplied. [Source: Photographer: DFNatureAwed. Image courtesy of Stockvault.net.]
* Please do not use our photos without our permission. These include photos by Mary Hunt Webb, Morris Webb, Jr., Morris Webb, Sr., and C.B. Hunt. Thank you.
