A Lesson From Mixed Nuts

"the garden of nuts"

Song of Solomon 6:11

We had mixed nuts for dinner tonight.  A lot of them. 

No, we didn't eat them ~ that's who came to dinner.  Mixed nuts. 

My sister made a comment while we were preparing dinner and getting out appetizers.  She took the box of mixed nuts out of the cupboard and joked about how that box represented our family:  deluxe, premium quality, many varieties, but all nuts. 

The quality of the nuts?  Premium.  The quality of the picture?  Not so much...

 We've seen a lot of family in the last two days ~ immediate family and in-laws; aunts and uncles and cousins; second-cousins and third-cousins and family friends who have been around so long it seems like we're related. 

The variety of personalities is vast.  Outgoing and introverted, upbeat and mellow, gentle and smiling and laugh-out-loud.  Liberal and conservative, religious and irreverent, Type A and Type ~ well, everything else.  Not to mention Baby Boomers and Generations X, Y and Z.

But somehow, when you get them all together, it works.  You spend a little time chatting with those who are a lot like you, and then you sit down and eat with someone else, and maybe you have nothing in common with them but your genes, but it's interesting and fun and a little educational.  And then you get up for dessert and coffee and sit down next to someone else and maybe find out how much you're like them.

I like almonds the best, but if I'm sitting in front of a bowl of mixed nuts, and I'm gonna eat a little of this and a little of that.  Variety is good.

Especially since I'm a little nuts, too.

~ "the best fruits of the land...

a little balm and a little honey,

spices and myrrh,

   pistachio nuts and almonds" ~

Genesis 43:11

~