Cooking with the Lord

“Water, chicken broth, parsley…” Ella listed as she stirred a bowl full of water at the kitchen table. “Are you making chicken soup?” I asked. “Yes, and now I’m going to add a pinch of kosher salt,” she told me. “Kosher salt? Who told you to add that?” “Jesus told me,” she replied. I didn’t even know he cooked. The kosher salt did make sense, though–after all, he was a Jew. I was fascinated by Ella’s concept of Jesus. And cooking. She attends Christian services, goes to a Methodist preschool, has religious education classes at a Unitarian parish, and just came back from an extended stay with her Catholic grandparents. Every night she watches “Good Eats” on the food network with her dad. She somehow got a soup-making Son of Man out of the mix. “Jesus told you?” I asked, trying to sound casual. “How did he do that?” “Well, he was flying around in the sky (I could see how a 4 year old could come up with that one) because he’s magical (and suddenly my child was a heretic) and I’m magical, too, so he told me.” “What else does Jesus tell you?” I probed. “He told me to tell you to stop cooking so I can do it,” she testified. Hallelujah! I’ll praise the Lord over that one!

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