Saturday, June 30, 2012

Pigs in a Blanket

Centuries ago Sheila and I were preparing for our wedding. “How about if we have pigs in a blanket at the wedding?” she asked. I thought it was rather strange that sausages wrapped in a pancake would be served at a wedding reception. But this was Toledo… in a polish family… not the first time I had discovered something odd about my wonderful fiancĂ©e… and she was the bride, so I agreed.

Months later we were walking hand in hand out of the sanctuary where, for some reason beyond my understanding, Sheila had said “I do” when asked if she took me to be her husband. “You need to get into the fellowship hall! They’re ready to serve the food,” my brand new mother-in-law exclaimed.

First in line (being the groom has a few privileges), we gathered our food at the buffet. I saw all the food we had requested except the pigs in a blanket. In their place were hamburger stuffed into cabbage covered in a red sauce. “Where are the pigs in a blanket?” I whispered to the woman in white beside me.

“Right there!”

“Right where?” Perhaps love really had blinded me. “I don’t see them.”

Sheila poked her fork at the cabbage rolls, “Right there!”

“Those aren’t pigs in a blanket,” I responded. “Pigs in a blanket are sausages wrapped in pancakes.”

“Why would we have sausages and pancakes at our wedding reception?”

“That’s what I thought when you asked to have them months ago, but, hey, it’s your wedding.”

“That’s just silly. Eat your pigs in a blanket and be happy.”

It was our first argument as a married couple.

Who was right? Both of us. In southern Ohio pigs in a blanket are sausages wrapped in pancakes. In northern Ohio they are hamburger wrapped in cabbage.

Neither one of us thought to describe them because we couldn’t imagine anything else. And so we were both blind to the reality of the other person.

Is it possible we have grown up in a world so upside down from God’s reality that we are blind to what is true? It’s not that we ever intended to be, it’s just that we have not spent enough time with God to see and hear Him describe what is real, what is true, what is valuable, what is important, what we should live for, what will matter while we’re alive and when we die. Is it possible that we think we know what God is talking about but will only find out on our “wedding day” (see Revelation 21) that what we thought was WAY wrong?

It’s not a big deal to know what pigs in a blanket are. It is eternally essential to know what is really real.

“What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” Luke 16:15b (NIV)

We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)

Boldly, Herb

To receive blog posts directly to your email sign up on the bar to the right or at: http://groups.google.com/group/fwgs

To listen to Herb via the internet go to http://www.newsongpittsburgh.org/ and click on the sermons link