AN EYE SINGLE TO THE GLORY OF GOD BY Debra Stevenson

AN EYE SINGLE TO THE GLORY OF GOD

I have loved this scripture and have thought and pondered it's meaning many times.                                                                              

 As an artist I have always been drawn to eyes and love the challenge they are to study and draw them. The eyes are the window to the soul.  Recently, I believe I was able to understand a small part of this scripture as I had the privilege of being a part of two spiritual events in our family.  To me it was a miracle of the 'eyes.'  It was within the realm of the full spectrum of life that I was able to witness this.   The first event was the passing of our dear Mother and Grandmother Beth Millerberg.  There were many times that I visited her and she was not able to communicate very well.   I was drawn into the beauty of her blue eyes that at times were as clear as a beautiful blue sky.  I would look intently in them to see what she was wanting to tell me.  It almost seemed that I could see the eternities through them.  I was privileged to be able to be with her the last hours of her life.  I remember looking at her and thinking to myself 'she looks like a teenager'  How could this be with a body that was so frail and dying.  I realized that I was seeing her spirit through her eyes and that spirit was stronger than her body.  It was shining, singing to me of her great excitement to move on.  I also felt her love for her family and her concern for them in that brief moment that I was able to say good-bye and all of this through looking in her eyes.

The second event was when I was able to see our new grand-daughter Eleonore Anne Rees (our little Ellie) for the first time as she came into this earth.   On the complete opposite end of the cycle of life was this precious daughter of God sent to us from His presence.  Her eyes were so full of wonder and purity and complete love and trust for her Mom and Dad and brothers.  As I think of the charge to become as a little child to enter the kingdom of God, I think of these pure spirits that are being sent down and if I have ever wondered at what that means all I have to do is look into the eyes of a little child especially a newborn. It is the closest thing to heaven on the earth.   I am so grateful for the blessings of life and even death and for the wonderful example that I had to see through Beth and Ellie's eyes to see the glory of God.

Eye of Round Roast

Cooking has been my main creative outlet lately.  I decided to take this month's theme and do a cooking experiment trying both a dish and a technique I had never used before.  An eye of round roast is a fairly lean cut of beef.  It doesn't have the fat or the connective tissue that left make a typical beef roast so tender and juicy.  I found a recipe that called for roasting the beef at a very high temperature for a short time - about 500 degrees, for just 7 minutes per pound (no searing, browning, or anything else - and then just letting it sit in the hot oven for about 2.5 hours (don't open the oven door!).  I had serious reservations.  "My oven will be ice cold at the end of 2.5 hours," I thought.  "How could the roast possibly come out done?! This could be an unmitigated disaster."  I tried it anyway.  I made it for Sunday dinner, and we invited some friends over...why not?

This is what the roast looked like before going into the oven:



 This is what it looked like in the oven:

This is what it looked like "done:"













You might not be able to tell exactly how pink that roast is inside.  The color is actually not much different from the cutting board it's sitting on.  It turns out my fears about the oven being totally cold at the end of 2.5 hours were well-founded.  The roast came out very solidly rare, and barely warmer than room temperature.  When we put it on the serving platter, it was soon swimming in a pool of blood, like some kind of deli murder scene.  I was...completely...mortified, but I had to serve it since we had nothing else to eat, and despite its macabre appearance, I didn't actually think it was unsafe.  Our guests were very gracious and their kids even seemed to like the "red chicken."  Bottom line - this recipe is not welcome in our kitchen anymore; it was simply too offensive on its first and only visit.  And next time, I will try to spare our guests my culinary experiments.