Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

• 1 Samuel 25:9-19

I have written about my recent trip to the ER and having a monster-sized kidney stone.  With the size and the location, right at the kidney, I have a stent to relieve the pain until they can do a carefully planned surgery.  But on my ER visit, I ended up being admitted for one night.  I ate three meals of hospital food.

The nurse who welcomed me to the floor said that they dropped off a few extra meals and she would get me one.  I told her that I had IBS issues if I ate anything with onion or garlic, even the powders of those two.  She came back with a double portion of macaroni and cheese with a side order of carrots. Probably swapping the protein for one of those.  I loved it.

The next morning, I was praying that I would not get sausage or something that might mask onion and garlic.  I got scrambled eggs, French Toast, and a slice of bacon.  It wasn’t the greatest French Toast, but I loved it.

And just before I left, they came in with a plain cheeseburger, mayo, tomato slice, lettuce leaf, and again carrots on the side.  I loved it.

Was the food bland?  Yes!  But with no onion or garlic, I prefer it that way when I do not know how the food was prepared.  I might have had trouble with supper if the discharge had been delayed.  The only options were meat loaf and lasagna.  I would have created a third option, not eating the entrée and just eating the sides.

Why did I love it?  Did David bake all that bread?  Did David roast the grain, dress the sheep, press the figs?  No.

I loved it because with being my wife’s caregiver for several years, not able to eat out due to IBS issues, and wanting to save money, these were three meals that I did not have to cook, nor did I have to clean the dishes.

We can show love to people by being appreciative of what they do.  And in the right frame of mind, anything can be a meal fit for a king.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.