Can you smell the baking?

Mondays, doncha just hate ’em?

Well, sometimes.

This morning the beach was clear and dry, not windy but with just enough breeze, not too cold but still fresh and a bit nippy, not crowded but dotted with a few regular dog walkers happy to pass a few minutes in idle chat, the sun was bright and, if it was low and blinding, no big shakes – we could always look the other way, or shield our eyes. Just about as perfect as you can get.

Then I came home to feed the dogs and make a good big mug of scalding coffee, hot enough to buzz my lips and warm my hands, and as I nursed it I read for a little while. Then, as I always do on a Monday, I optimistically checked to see if a friend’s livestream church service had been posted – ‘optimistic’ because usually it hasn’t. Usually it doesn’t go onto youtube until Wednesday or Thursday, but this morning, there it was. And as I was listening a neighbour came in, so the video was halted and we rambled on for a while about everything and nothing, agreeing about hibernation in these grey winter months, and a song he’s written. Then he was gone and I finished the video.

Lovely.

Before I could turn to anything else an email popped in; a couple of friends are coming for coffee tomorrow and – he says – they will bring biscuits (cookies, I suppose, as they’re American). So I decided that they will need a cake to take home with them and I was half way through baking when another pal popped in, and the baking was delayed while I admired her new hair-do.

Then I finished baking the cakes, caught up with the Times online, and discovered that there’s a special offer of full access to the New York Times for just 50pence a week for a whole year! So, I’m all signed up for that. And reading that took the next hour. The standard of journalism and the writing in the New York Times is excellent – so much better, so much more in-depth than the shabby old London Times. And the puzzles are better (but I saved them for this evening).

Then, of course, I had to sample the baking (I always make two cakes) and I looked around at my sitting room, as dusk fell, enjoying the glow of the table lamps, the twinkling lights on the book case, the wonderful smell of baking, and I thought ‘Is this what happiness is?’

And then, wouldn’t you know, as I went to turn off the computer I saw that another friend’s church service is online earlier than usual, and so I listened to that too.

And now it’s half seven in the evening and I haven’t done a single stroke of work all day! But what a lovely unexpected day it’s been. What a gift of a day, a surprise Sabbath.

Psalm 65:11
You crown the year with your bounty,
    and your carts overflow with abundance.

And then of course I was enchanted by the word ‘abundance’ and I remembered this – taken a bit out of context, I know. But just think about God’s abundant love in your life and mine, his wonderful provision, every little gift he has given us, none earned but so enjoyed!

Luke 6:38
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”