Eric Liddel and Creamed Corn

"to you it shall be for food"

Genesis 1:29

Okay, so remember all this?

A bountiful harvest in our kitchen, yes?  But it wouldn't all fit in my fridge, and it wasn't going to last long sitting on my counter!  So my kids and I got to work making the most out of it. 

The first thing to tackle was the corn.  Almost 30 ears of it, and starting to get a little dried out, so I decided the best course of action was to cream it, to infuse it with the moisture it had lost.  Then I could freeze it, and when I reheat it, I'll do so in cream, which will plump it up some more.  Then a little salt and maybe a teaspoon of sugar, and yum!

So I got to work.  First, I had to shuck all the corn, and then I had to remove it all the kernels.  For that, I had a special tool.  A very fun, very devoted tool. 

It's called a corn stripper, or a corn zipper.  I also saw a variation called a Kernel Kutter.  But that seems a little too cutesy to me.  If you look closely, you can see the two little teeth on it; in the middle, pointing toward the handle?

You could, of course, do the same job with this good old-fashioned tool:

And I've done it that way many times in the past.  But a few years ago, my mother-in-law gave me a corn stripper in my Christmas stocking, and it's very effective.  More so than doing it with a knife.  A little neater, too.  The kernels don't fly so far and so high as they do with a knife. 

But more than being good at its job, what I love about my corn stripper is how happy it is. 

Just look at that face!  Such joy in doing what he was created to do!

And that, made me think of Eric Liddell. 

I know.  But as I say 

to my sister:  I can't help where my mind goes.  

Eric Liddell. The Scottish missionary, and Olympic runner on whom the movie "Chariots of Fire" was based.  A great story about a great man ~ far greater than they were able to depict in a two-hour movie. 

In that movie, Eric Liddell said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast.  And when I run I feel His pleasure."

I love that line.  I suppose it's possible the man never said that line; that it was written for the movie.  But I am still inspired by it.  I, too, can feel God's pleasure when I do the things I was created to do, like mothering, and writing, and maybe one or two other joys. 

So as I prepped that corn I thought about Eric Liddell, feeling God's pleasure.  And I thought about that happy little corn stripper, smiling as he did what he was created to do.

We should find joy in being who He created us to be, and in doing what we are gifted to do.  But more than that, we should find His joy. 

~ "And whatever you do, do it heartily, 

as to the Lord and not to men,

knowing that from the Lord

you will receive the reward of the inheritance;

for you serve the Lord Christ." ~

Colossians 3:23-24

~