Dinnerware

Every now and then we get out and get a chance to go bargain shopping. Laura is the queen of this. More often than not when it comes to the “luxuries” of life we try to find it as a bargain first. Check the ads for a yard sale (although we never have the funds when we see something as we drive by one), go to a consignment store for play clothes (why pay full price for something that will eventually be covered in dirt?), or a favorite of mine is Goodwill. If you never have been … picture a store where everything is donated and they mark everything at one price, which is a pretty good discount off regular prices and to that half off days and a little melody plays in Laura’s ears about the good times at Goodwill.

We have found books, clothes, toys, mugs, and containers galore. I always though seem to wind up though looking through the dinnerware. We have a gremlin, I think, when it comes to silverware, for some reason the gremlin likes small spoons. So the first thing I usually look for is something that can replenish the gremlins findings. The most fascinating part to me though about this section is the glasses and the plates. You see, because the items are donated, these items come from a variety of places.

A glass mug from the Kentucky Derby.
A plate representing a family reunion.
A glass from a company function.
A bowl that has those annoying ninja turtles.
A cup from a charity fundraiser.

I wonder what stories are contained in them … I wonder what was talked about as the item was emptied or cleaned off … I wonder why they are there, maybe a divorce and that many plates are no longer needed, maybe a single person getting rid of clutter as they begin a new life with their spouse. I wonder what stories are contained in you … stay with me for a moment please.

Be brave look in your cabinet. Look at the cups and the plates. If you are anything like us the idea of matching dinnerware is found only in a magazine. Let me share for a moment about our plates … in the order of acquisition …

The orange plates – AHHH, the first set of plates from our first apartment. We were just get settled in and realized we had nothing to eat with. It was the summer and stores had their picnic packs out so for I think $10 we got a setting for four plates, utensils, bowls and cups.
The Martha Stewart Set – These were our wedding plates lovely blue swirls. Some people do the fine china with the individual pieces paced in high density foam … ours came in a shrink wrapped box.
The hand-me-downs – My grandmother had just passed away and we were still in need of plates. Enter lovely white Corelle with brown flowers. Yeah, we are gaining quite the matching set aren’t we?
The theme plates – Laura was making some food for a get together at church with a Mexican theme and wanted plates and bowls that looked somewhat Mexican. Hopped in the car to the local Dollar Tree and found some plates that looked the part as well as an awesome bright yellow one with red chilies and in big letters “Fiesta”. You get the point.
The kids plates – these are a motley of different styles. Cartoon characters mainly. They are also in different styles sectioned and no sectioned, as well as different shapes, squares, circles and silhouettes of the aforementioned cartoon characters.

I digress when it comes to stories about our cups …

Next time you look at your cups and plates think of the verses:

Cups … John 4:13-15 (New King James Version)

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Plates … Ephesians 4:11-13 (Today’s New International Version)

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Cups provide refreshment … plates serve food. Christians are a lot like cups and plates I think.

As cups, we are to provide people with a message of hope that can refresh their soul. A message that when one begins to start drinking, that cannot help to not stop. Think of a person lost in a desert and getting their first big gulp of water.

As plates, we are to serve others. Be it through teaching, be it through fixing a lasagna for a potluck, be it through a hospital visit.

Here is the kicker … The church is exactly like your cabinets of plates and glasses. You see hope and service can come from anyone: young and old, married or single, kids or no kids, single family or blended family.

Even from a ninja turtle I guess … Dude