Cast Iron Christmas

I love to cook.

I don't do it nearly enough, but I do love it.

I love to cook with a lot of heat. I love to sear and stir fry. I like to hear the sizzle and smell the great things that happen as the deep flavors are drawn out.

I think my favorite cooking is kind of like taking the grilling mentality and bringing it indoors to the stovetop for the winter.

I don't really like recipes. I'd much rather cook on the fly.

I refuse to ever willingly make a casserole (but I will definitely eat them).

To me, improvisation is where it's at. And there is one cooking medium that I love more than any other.

Cast iron. Accept no substitutes.

Man, what a thing a cast iron skillet really is. I have watched 3 generations of family cook in cast iron, and for us southerners, there really isn't anything else that comes close.

Think about it: you can fry bacon, or make cornbread, or do a million other tasks in between, right in the same pan. Cultures throughout the world have known the utility of cast iron cooking for thousands of years.

The best part of all? Cast iron only gets better with time, if you use it regularly. It grows darker, and smoother, and even more non-stick as time goes by. Carbon builds up on it, and it just becomes an aged and seasoned thing of beauty.

Every time I take my favorite cast iron out of the cabinet, it's like meeting an old friend once again. Treated right, that skillet will outlast me. No matter what technology comes...I feel sure I'll be cooking in that same cast iron, God willing, in 2059.

I just got a brand new cast iron grill pan, and when Holly gave it to me, she realized the serious nature of the gift.

This pan is a new, but long-term member of the family, and it will take time to build the relationship. But oh, the stories of steaks and fish and chicken and pork chops we will one day be able to tell.

Cast iron reminds me of Christmas. Really, it does.

When I was a child, the story of the baby Jesus was shiny and new.

I can remember those childhood Christmas pageants in those tiny country churches. We stood still as statues. Clad in our fathers' bathrobes, we were 6 year old, twentieth century, American shepherds who had never seen a single sheep.

I think I can remember hearing Silent Night for the first time...and I know I can remember the first time that I really listened to the words and took in the beauty of the gentle melody.

Little did I know then that the song...and much more, the story of Jesus' birth was already a perfectly seasoned old skillet.

Even though to me the story was shiny and new, 2,000 years of carbon had been deposited upon that nativity scene, and it had only grown more powerful and beautiful with time.

My first Christmases found me more concerned with Santa Claus than baby Jesus...but it's the baby who has the staying power. Eventually, the old man in red becomes a cartoon and novelty. He burns up easily in the scorching heat that the tests of time bring to us all.

But the star, the shepherd, the manger...those people and places only deepen with complexity as life unfolds.

In the decades (really?) since my childhood, I like to think that I've become a little more seasoned myself. But I know that I have many miles left to travel.

And that's ok.

We need to let the fact that we're not finished be ok for all of us, and we don't give ourselves that freedom in grace often enough.

No great skillet that I know of ever got seasoned overnight.

And though the grace and forgiveness of God is instant...discipleship takes a lifetime.

It's wonderful to know that we are neither what we were...nor what we will become.

No matter what the future holds, some things won't change. God willing, I'll be reading this very same Christmas story come December of 2059. What great tales of Christmas grace we'll be able to tell by then!

Luke 2:7-14 (KJV)

⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. ⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Grace & Peace,

Adam