Morning Grace Dispenser

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me that water, so that I may never be thirsty.” John 4.15

Thanks to the rec of long time good friend Helen, recently, I read Amor Towles delightful novel A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. A great story enriched by its historical background. Not even close to a spoiler, the enjoyment and sharing of coffee are interwoven in many scenes.

In the 1920’s, distant royalty Count Rostov is confined to a Moscow hotel by the new Soviet culture courts. A sort of gilded cage to be sure, it is still incarceration. He awakens each day to his restrained reality and prepares his coffee…

“With a half-opened eye, he donned his robe, slipped on his slippers…took up the tin, spooned a spoonful of beans in the apparatus and began to crank. As yet somnolence continued to cast its shadow. But when the Count opened the small drawer of the grinder, the world and all it contained were transfixed by the envy of the alchemists – the aroma of freshly ground coffee.

In that instant, darkness was separated from light… The trees bore fruit and rustled with the movement of birds and beasts and all manner of creeping things. Closer at hand a pigeon scuffed its feet on the flashing…Then having poured the coffee, he began to enjoy the morning’s offerings to their fullest.”

Later, “the Count figured a cup of coffee would hit the spot. For what is more versatile? Coffee can energize the industrious at dawn, calm the reflective at noon, or raise the spirits of the beleaguered in the middle of the night.”

From before my birth through the kicking in of memory onto age 12, I grew up in an all things coffee home. Early on, my dad worked for Chase and Sandborne (a few of you will recall that brand, Dianne’s Mammaw Shockley’s favorite) and then for many years Maxwell House.

When grownup neighbors, friends, aunts and uncles came over, they sat at the dining room table laughed, talked, and drank coffee – cake or pie not necessary, seldom supplied. The same when my parents went to those folks’ houses. We kids were shooed to the backyard or to my room to play and behave.

I was told I could have coffee when I got older, though I loved Saturday morning when my traveling dad sat long at the table, drank multiple cups of coffee and reveled me with stories of World War 2. Little bespectacled Bill: with my chocolate milk and Rice Krispies (yeah I know, ugh).

Then something didn’t happen. Coffee was offered and the classic discovery for some – it didn’t taste as good as it smelled. Staying up late in college for tests didn’t help. The first decade of marriage, our 20’s, not exactly a problem, but Dianne often remarked it just didn’t seem right, grown up to have a serious conversation with one person drinking coffee and the other Coke or Dr. Pepper.

Then something did happen. In my 30’s, about halfway to now, a decade after my coffee selling/loving/roof over our heads providing dad left this life, the stars and taste buds aligned. First cream and sugar, then quickly fade to black – coffee tasted good, very good.

So pretty much since then, even more as the years pass and I arise ever earlier, coffee – optionally enjoyed otherwise through the day – is a saving means of morning grace. I do wake up awake. But initially everything feels tentative, iffy for how can I navigate the possibilities and problems du jour.

I’m sure there is a body chemistry explanation of how caffeine revs up the heart and endorphins. But something happens, not a big bang, but a gentle hmmm. It’s great to have another day. Yeah, with lots of help and grace for sure, but hey I am up for another day. Sludgy got-to transmorphs in an array of get-to’s.

Followers of Jesus are body and soul people – people of incarnation and enskinment. Some of you have heard it put: embodied spirits; inspirited bodies. Coffee, hands in the dirt, sticky faced kids, crinkly-faced lifelong friends, sigh, even galumphing dogs and fill in your own blank of beloved stuff _______ are outward signs of invisible grace.

If grassy tea, kale or carrot juice…icy Coke…do it for you, Doxology for that too! Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. And God saw that is was good, very good.