Fat Tuesday

Today was fat Tuesday, or Faschnaut Day for those of you with a German/Polish/Pennsylvania Dutch background.  The word Fasch means "fast" and naught means "night".  Fat Tuesday, which takes place just before Ash Wednesday, is traditionally the day where people would clean out their kitchens of foods that they would be abstaining from for the time of Lent.  They would take the sugar, lard, butter, and other “unhealthy” elements in the kitchen and from those things create hot, delicious, and tasty doughnuts.  And today in Lottie (the cafeteria at school) there were faschnauts…powdered, sugared and glazed.  The little treats put a buzz in the air, a certain kind of excitement because treats of this kind are special and something to be enjoyed and celebrated.

But this is exactly what God is all about.  God is all about taking the “unhealthy”, bad-for-you practices in life and from it, makes something beautiful, delicious, and covered in powdered sugar.  God is all about redemption and forgiveness and making new and beautiful from the bad and unwanted.

During this time of Lent, this intentional time of reflection and giving up to give out, I want to keep this in mind.  That I am not only submitting pieces of my life to God because the calendar says its time, but that I serve a God of redemption and one who desires to create delicious and beautiful things out of those sacrifices.  And when we begin to see and experience the beauty that God is making from our messes, let’s celebrate!  Let’s allow lent to be a time of joy and parties and celebration and great food because we serve a God so great, so creative, so powerful, that he can make beauty out of anything we give Him.