Now I’ve been saying it from the start. Mustard and onions make for the best type of hot dog, ketchup might be a sin(that’ still up for debate), and relish is just so not ok if it’s too sweet.
It is a hot northern California summer day when I walked hand in hand with my little brother into that barber shop. The line was long and so my barber said to come back in forty minutes or so. With that in mind and a grumbling stomach, I figured what better time to go for a walk with my brother; Elijah He’s a big guy now, just about 7 years old. Very talkative, very opinionated, and very much like his big brother in that he doesn’t need a reason to eat. Eating is fun, even if mom fed you right before we walked out the door. So what could beat spending time with him doing something we both loved? Well we walk into the quaint, quietly lit Italian deli. And he ordered a hot dog? Of all the things on the menu, a hot dog? I figured this must have been a mistake, or maybe a moment of divine inspiration that he would proceed to eat the best hot dog ever. Because in my head, I would order everything on the dog. Mustard, onions, if I’m feeling my heritage that day maybe a little sauerkraut? Know what I’m talking about? Right? That’s what I’m saying.
“I don’t want anything on it. Just the bun and the meat please”
It takes a certain sort of human to deny the cute, pining eyes and face of a little Filipino boy. Good thing for all of us, I am that human. Now not abruptly or rudely, we sat down at the table( the high table of course so he could be tall like everyone else), and I took a bite of my sandwich while glancing in disdain at his dog. Doesn’t he know what he’s missing? A PLAIN hot dog? Who kidnapped my brother? Why the boredom?
So I went to the man at the bar, requested small cups of mustard and onions and sat back down with the little alien who took the form of my little brother.
N: well I know that you like mustard and onions, it’s really good on a hot dog, why don’t you just try a little?
E:Uh no thanks, I just want it plain. It’s better this way
N: Tell you what, why don’t you just try a little? Maybe a small spoon of mustard right at the end?
E: Ok I GUESS
So I proceeded to delicately garnish the abomination in front of me with the proper condiments to turn it into a culinary masterpiece. The moment of truth is upon us, the little man goes in to take a bite.
Ok before we get into the next part- we have all been here before. I guarantee it.
He takes one ever so selective bite, tilts his head, pupils dilate and refocus as he goes back in for another. I put a little more mustard and onions on the dog, another bite; and another thespian level head tilt.
N: Is it good?
A reluctant, frustrated grin spreads across my little brothers face. His little eyes twinkle and the “you got me” laugh begins to form. He liked it-no-he loved it. He knew it, I knew it, for this moment in the universe, life made sense.
I laughed and smiled, ear to ear watching my little brother experience the truth that is mustard and onions on a dog.
How often have I just settled for ok? How many times has the Lord sat there, at the table with me, patiently waiting for me to be receptive for the goodness He’s trying to spread in my life. If only we had the time to detail all of what that looks like. All the times He sat there with goodness, and admonishments, and teachings, and blessings in hand; waiting for me to be open. And man, how good does it feel when that little reluctant smile breaks out across your face? Such sweet surrender. Something so simple. And what an amazing feeling.
The Lord displays truth through the smallest things. In 1 Kings 19, we find a story about Elijah (hahahaha God is good even when I’m writing a blog).
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.12After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.13When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
The Lord is good. He didn’t need to have me hanging off of a cliff to learn this, no emotional- life altering experience in which I flirted with death or danger. He sat me at a table with Eli, and taught me about His goodness, with a little bit of mustard and some onions. “For if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to the mountain ‘jump’, and it will jump”. Today, just for a little bit, sit at the table with the Lord and be open. Because He’s sitting there. Smiling and laughing.
