There are
Cheesecake People and there are Salad People, and then there are the Jellybean
People. I’m a Cheesecake person, but not for the reasons you’d think. I don’t
like eating them, but I love making
them! They’re just so easy to make look beautiful (and expensive!). Not much
effort for a whole heap of class.
Eating? I’d
prefer a nice salad over a cheesecake any day. You know, those ones with fancy
names like Chargrilled Pumpkin and Feta salad, Roast Green Beans with Sweet
Berry Tomatoes, or Peach Pancetta and Mozzarella salad. Yummmmmmm!!!
My
sisters-in-law are great at making salads. I should know. Every Christmas I
fill my plate with their creations. Last Christmas, my five-year-old daughter
skipped the meat, lollies and cakes spread across the table and filled her
plate with salad too, if that gives you any idea of how great they looked!
But before
the eating comes the inevitable stand around the table and admire each other’s
creations. It goes something like this…
“Wow! Check
out that salad! That looks awesome! Is that mango in there?”
“Yep.”
“Yum! And
that one! Caramelised sweet potato? Seriously? Wow! Can’t wait to try it.”
“It’s just
a salad.”
“Ha! My
salads consist of badly chopped tomato, iceberg lettuce, carrot and, if you’re
lucky, capsicum and cucumber. Nothing like that. I wish I could make salads
like that.”
“Yeah, but
look at your cheesecake! I can’t believe you made that! It looks like something
you’d buy from a cake shop.”
“It is
pretty but really, it’s heaps easier than it looks. Anyone could make it.”
“I
couldn’t.”
And so it
goes on. We each think our creation is the easiest thing in the world to make,
while the thought of making the other thing has us completely stressing!
Cheesecake
People and Salad People.
Then the
Jellybeans turned up. No baking or mixing to make them whatsoever but hours of
fun since the giant bag of crazy flavoured Jellybeans didn’t come with a cheat
sheet of what each flavour was. It wouldn’t have been the Christmas it was
without the Jellybean Person.
Or the
Chocolate Ball Person, or the Pizza Scroll Person. Or the ‘I Just Provided the
House’ (but we really know she did way more than that) Person.
See,
Christmas lunch wouldn’t be Christmas lunch if everyone didn’t bring the bit
they were good at. I bring cheesecakes because, believe me, even ducks who eat
anything turn up their beaks at my salads. But I can do cheesecakes. My sisters
bring salads because they hate baking but their salads are incredible. My
brother brought jellybeans and a stack of laughter. And Mum and Dad provided
the house which really is a big deal since we’d all be sitting on the street if
not for that. I don’t think even cheesecake would taste good sitting on the
side of the street.
Nor would a
whole table full of cheesecakes make a very good lunch. Or a whole table of
jellybeans. Or an empty house with no food.
Pretty sure
you’ve got the idea by now but in case you haven’t, here it is:
The world
needs you and your gifts.
Whether
you’re good at baking, tossing a salad together, buying jellybeans, opening the
door to your house, finding the right music to set the scene, cleaning up,
organising everyone else (or footing the bill to enable them to do something
they might not have otherwise been able to do!), telling a joke, being
adorable, filling the silence, providing the silence, or turning on some
lights, you’re needed.
Got that?
You’re needed. You. Your exact set of gifts. That thing you can do? God needs
it. The world needs it. Something you
find incredibly easy to do really is a challenge for someone else, and vice
versa.
It might be
nothing to you, but it means the world to someone else.