Up north, here in the good ol’ U.S.A., people tend to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Down south, of course, we also eat three times a day. The only difference is that we like to say that we eat breakfast, dinner, and supper. But, whether one eats “dinner” at noon or in the evening, most everyone seems to agree that three square meals a day tends to be the norm.
That being said, most everyone would also agree that whatever one chooses to eat at each one of these three meals is expected to be both qualitatively and quantitatively separate and distinct from what one traditionally consumes at the other two daily meals. Most everyone, but not completely everyone.
Witness what happened when I chanced upon my sainted mother-in-law busily preparing supper the other night. Her evening menu included bacon and eggs along with all the trappings typically associated with a hearty morning breakfast.
As I stumbled upon this scene, I was unexpectedly whisked back to my childhood. For there, too, my mother would occasionally choose to serve breakfast at suppertime. To be sure, this did not happen often. But oh the joy when it did! Sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs (almost always cooked with cheese), grits (swimming in butter), cathead biscuits, gravy, and all the associated trimmings would constitute this rare and special meal.
Around this same time, Audrey Hepburn purportedly enjoyed “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” up in New York City. But trust me, her satisfaction in doing so could have in no way compared to my own delight at consuming the occasional “breakfast at suppertime” down in rural Georgia!
As happy as these occasions made me, they seemed to have had an even greater effect on my father. To this day, I remember how he would giddily crumble his biscuits onto his plate, before adding in scrambled eggs and cheese, then crumbled sausage, and finally topping it all off with gravy in order to create a mixture that can best be termed a proto-breakfast casserole.
I do not know if there was a name for this concoction or not. Having followed his example and made my own, though, what I do know is that, while it may have been a bit mushy in texture, it was nonetheless a gastronomical delight to the taste buds!
In those days, the notion of eating breakfast at suppertime was an infrequent and wonderful treat that provided immediate satisfaction and lasting memories for an impressionable little boy seated at the kitchen table. But today, eating breakfast at suppertime has taken on a whole new meaning. Today, it has given me pause, and cause, to ponder certain things about life.
After all, what does breakfast represent if not the earliest part of each individual day? Conversely, what does supper represent if not the culmination of each individual day? Having breakfast at suppertime, therefore, is like coming full circle, is it not?
It is like finishing the day, tired though one may be, and weary as well from the multitude of things one has had to face throughout that day, by returning to the freshness and innocence of one’s first few hours within that day!
Maybe we each might benefit by trying to end each day with a little of the perspective with which we began it. If nothing else, it might well leave less of a bitter taste in our mouths as we rest up for the next day soon to dawn.
What approaches, activities, actions, etc. might you and I consider undertaking at the end of each day that would help facilitate such a small little blessing?
And here is another thought. Might such an approach be equally as applicable to one’s lifetime as it is to one’s daily grind? One thing transitioning to retirement has taught me is that there are wonderful blessings associated with returning to some of the simpler activities I once enjoyed.
Perhaps you can relate. Was there a time when you once relished simpler activities that you now seem rarely get to ever get to enjoy? Was it back before obligations related to fulfilling the responsibilities of life largely forced you to marginalize them to the point that they all but disappeared?
Whether it was spending a morning fishing or an afternoon making home-made ice-cream or an evening catching lightning bugs or a night watching old movies, taking time to rediscover and reengage in activities that bring joy and reduce stress is a productive and rewarding approach to life. These days, I’m enjoying breakfast at suppertime in the sense that I am finding times and places for just such goings-on; and trust me, the taste it leaves in my mouth is wonderful.
Oh, and one last thought. Time and eternity may well be designed to work this same way. The opening two chapters of Genesis depict a scene where man and woman, as God’s children, live in a wonderful time and place of innocence wherein they enjoy the blessings God intends them to experience.
Sadly, Genesis 3 saw that world spoiled. The good news is that, even though it was destined to take considerable time culminating in the ultimate sacrifice, the rest of the Bible tells us how God has gone about restoring that world (all of nature) to its proper order. This He did by redeeming its principal inhabitants (us, as human beings, created in His image) through the death, burial, and resurrection of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ.
And now, when we read the closing chapters of Revelation, we see that there awaits us a new Heaven and a new Earth. And in that time and place, we will dwell forever while enjoying the simple blessings He intended all along for us to experience as His children!
Wow! The blessings of the Garden of Eden enjoyed forever in Heaven! Talk about “breakfast at suppertime”! I plan to be there! I plan to consume as much as is possible! And to never stop! I plan to have seconds and thirds and fourths and fifths and sixths and seventh helpings, world without end!
I hope you will be there too. You can be. After all, you too can have a place at the table. For the same One who said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world,” (in Matthew 25:34) also said (in John 14:1-4), “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
This prompted Thomas to ask just how we can get to that wonderful place, to which Jesus famously replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” There you have it - the key to the blessings God has prepared for us, described in the Bible as being so wonderful that they can only be said to consist of things “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined”.
Imagine! Blessings at the ending that will far surpass those of the beginning! Sounds like the ultimate “breakfast at suppertime” experience! Sink your teeth into that!
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/matthew/25-34.htm;
https://biblehub.com/nlt/john/14.htm;
https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/2-9.htm.
That being said, most everyone would also agree that whatever one chooses to eat at each one of these three meals is expected to be both qualitatively and quantitatively separate and distinct from what one traditionally consumes at the other two daily meals. Most everyone, but not completely everyone.
Witness what happened when I chanced upon my sainted mother-in-law busily preparing supper the other night. Her evening menu included bacon and eggs along with all the trappings typically associated with a hearty morning breakfast.
As I stumbled upon this scene, I was unexpectedly whisked back to my childhood. For there, too, my mother would occasionally choose to serve breakfast at suppertime. To be sure, this did not happen often. But oh the joy when it did! Sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs (almost always cooked with cheese), grits (swimming in butter), cathead biscuits, gravy, and all the associated trimmings would constitute this rare and special meal.
Around this same time, Audrey Hepburn purportedly enjoyed “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” up in New York City. But trust me, her satisfaction in doing so could have in no way compared to my own delight at consuming the occasional “breakfast at suppertime” down in rural Georgia!
As happy as these occasions made me, they seemed to have had an even greater effect on my father. To this day, I remember how he would giddily crumble his biscuits onto his plate, before adding in scrambled eggs and cheese, then crumbled sausage, and finally topping it all off with gravy in order to create a mixture that can best be termed a proto-breakfast casserole.
I do not know if there was a name for this concoction or not. Having followed his example and made my own, though, what I do know is that, while it may have been a bit mushy in texture, it was nonetheless a gastronomical delight to the taste buds!
In those days, the notion of eating breakfast at suppertime was an infrequent and wonderful treat that provided immediate satisfaction and lasting memories for an impressionable little boy seated at the kitchen table. But today, eating breakfast at suppertime has taken on a whole new meaning. Today, it has given me pause, and cause, to ponder certain things about life.
After all, what does breakfast represent if not the earliest part of each individual day? Conversely, what does supper represent if not the culmination of each individual day? Having breakfast at suppertime, therefore, is like coming full circle, is it not?
It is like finishing the day, tired though one may be, and weary as well from the multitude of things one has had to face throughout that day, by returning to the freshness and innocence of one’s first few hours within that day!
Maybe we each might benefit by trying to end each day with a little of the perspective with which we began it. If nothing else, it might well leave less of a bitter taste in our mouths as we rest up for the next day soon to dawn.
What approaches, activities, actions, etc. might you and I consider undertaking at the end of each day that would help facilitate such a small little blessing?
And here is another thought. Might such an approach be equally as applicable to one’s lifetime as it is to one’s daily grind? One thing transitioning to retirement has taught me is that there are wonderful blessings associated with returning to some of the simpler activities I once enjoyed.
Perhaps you can relate. Was there a time when you once relished simpler activities that you now seem rarely get to ever get to enjoy? Was it back before obligations related to fulfilling the responsibilities of life largely forced you to marginalize them to the point that they all but disappeared?
Whether it was spending a morning fishing or an afternoon making home-made ice-cream or an evening catching lightning bugs or a night watching old movies, taking time to rediscover and reengage in activities that bring joy and reduce stress is a productive and rewarding approach to life. These days, I’m enjoying breakfast at suppertime in the sense that I am finding times and places for just such goings-on; and trust me, the taste it leaves in my mouth is wonderful.
Oh, and one last thought. Time and eternity may well be designed to work this same way. The opening two chapters of Genesis depict a scene where man and woman, as God’s children, live in a wonderful time and place of innocence wherein they enjoy the blessings God intends them to experience.
Sadly, Genesis 3 saw that world spoiled. The good news is that, even though it was destined to take considerable time culminating in the ultimate sacrifice, the rest of the Bible tells us how God has gone about restoring that world (all of nature) to its proper order. This He did by redeeming its principal inhabitants (us, as human beings, created in His image) through the death, burial, and resurrection of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ.
And now, when we read the closing chapters of Revelation, we see that there awaits us a new Heaven and a new Earth. And in that time and place, we will dwell forever while enjoying the simple blessings He intended all along for us to experience as His children!
Wow! The blessings of the Garden of Eden enjoyed forever in Heaven! Talk about “breakfast at suppertime”! I plan to be there! I plan to consume as much as is possible! And to never stop! I plan to have seconds and thirds and fourths and fifths and sixths and seventh helpings, world without end!
I hope you will be there too. You can be. After all, you too can have a place at the table. For the same One who said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world,” (in Matthew 25:34) also said (in John 14:1-4), “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
This prompted Thomas to ask just how we can get to that wonderful place, to which Jesus famously replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” There you have it - the key to the blessings God has prepared for us, described in the Bible as being so wonderful that they can only be said to consist of things “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined”.
Imagine! Blessings at the ending that will far surpass those of the beginning! Sounds like the ultimate “breakfast at suppertime” experience! Sink your teeth into that!
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/matthew/25-34.htm;
https://biblehub.com/nlt/john/14.htm;
https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/2-9.htm.