My Favorite Kitchen Utensil

A meat fork.

In this day and age, with all the high-tech gadgets and automatic watch-a-ma-callits, this simple, unglamorous utensil is one of my favorite kitchen tools. It's just the right length, just the right weight, fits comfortably in my hand. But it is more than a fork.

One night recently, I stood at the stove, meat fork in my hand, poised and ready to stab into the hamsteak I was cooking up for supper. I stopped for a moment, a flood of memories washed over me.

I saw my mother standing in her kitchen, the same exact fork poised in her hand, ready to stab into her juicy pot roast. I still cannot bake a pot roast as scrumptious as Mom's. Oh, and her mouth-watering pork steaks! She would brown them in the skillet, then slow cook them in bbq sauce in a low oven. This handy tool was also used to check the boiled potatoes in preparation for potato salad. Over the years I have received many compliments on my potato salad - learned how to make it by watching Mom all those years ago.

I can see, smell, taste these kitchen memories as though they happened yesterday, not 40 years ago. Amazing how all these thoughts came and went in an instant. No one around me had any idea so much was going on in my tired brain in that split second.

I'm thankful for a God that gives such a wonderful gift - the opportunity, the ability to revisit people, events, places that are special to us. Mom has been gone 6 years now, I miss her very much, especially in those split second moments that appear ordinary and mundane on the surface, but down deep are really moments that are so much more.

'Don't sweat the big stuff' as they say, because it's the little things that make the biggest impact. At times I knock myself out, trying to make big memories for my children - and all they will remember will be a meat fork?!? Guess maybe I should re-evaluate my priorities each new day the Lord gives me.