Friday, April 3, 2009

Dusty Treasures

When my parents bought the little farm where I grew up, it included a tiny, one-room adobe building. Known simply as "the storeroom," it housed various "treasures" over the years.

My mom lined the simple wooden shelves along one wall with canned vegetables and fruit. Many a winter's serving of green beans, crowder peas and peach cobbler began with a trip to that storeroom.

The last few years I lived at home, the storeroom also contained a large chest freezer. We often had enough frozen beef there to feed a small army. All year long, we would dig through the freezer for a "treasure" that would grace our dining table within a couple hours.

Adobe -- mud brick -- is a great product for natural insulation. It's also a habitat for dust. I loved the food that came from storage in that mud building.

But I can't think of it without remembering the smell of dust.

The three-plus years of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry took place up and down the dusty roads and sun-stroked villages of Israel. That season culminated with a week in Jerusalem.

Starting Sunday, I hope you will journey with me as we look back to the events of Jesus during what we call "Holy Week." My prayer is that it will move us beyond the dusty layers of two millennia treat our hearts to a feast.

We begin on Sunday.

4 comments:

Rachel Cotterill said...

I'd never heard of adobe (except as a software company!), so that's fascinating. Is it a common building material where you live(d)?

C. Beth said...

Looking forward to it!

Rachel--Adobe was a common building material in the southwest U.S. (and Mexico, I believe) back in the "old days." It is still used at times but these days it is a lot more expensive than building with wood, so it's not used that often. See this link.

RMc said...

Looking forward to reading your thoughts next week. I've enjoyed entering into the stories you have told here!

Unknown said...

Thank you all for your comments. I look forward to next week.