Week 2: Checking the Broiler
It’s amazing what you see when you actually take the time to look.
Each Sunday, my wife and I prepare, cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
I was sitting at the table with my wife playing a wildly entertaining game of Ticket to Ride. We can both get fairly competitive, especially when we’re playing that particular game. But that’s probably all we have to say about that, because I think Sarah happened to be winning this time…
I only bring it up because, in the middle of the game, Sarah stopped to look over at the oven — more specifically, the broiler. You see, this was our first time using the broiler and things were not going to plan.
At first it was making a weird noise. I was focused on the game, so of course I just shrugged it off. But Sarah just kept looking over. It was obviously bothering her. But we let it go on until something happened that caused us to do something.
We started seeing smoke.
My training from Smokey the Bear (if you call watching commercials during Saturday morning cartoons training) told me that smoke wasn’t a great sign. Even though we weren’t fighting a forest fire, it was still cause for alarm.
So Sarah went over, opened the broiler and took a look.
The chicken kabobs were nearly touching the roof of the broiler. As Sarah attempted to pull them out, we noticed that the rack they were on seemed to be a little bent out of shape.
As we often do when we find ourselves in a pickle, Sarah had called her mom. The phone was ringing, the chicken was smoking and neither one of us knew what to do. Then Sarah did something profound.
She looked again.
The broiler rack on which the chicken kabobs were resting had been put in the wrong way. It should have gone in portrait instead of landscape. (Quick interjection, isn’t that how sane people describe that scenario? I hear of weird kooks who say “hamburger” or “hot dog.” Some people’s kids…)
Just as my mother-in-law answered the phone, we made the switch. Amidst all the craziness of the situation, all it took was one extra look to figure it out. Sarah described this artfully with the next sentence out of her mouth — one that I will always remember.
“It’s amazing what you see when you actually take the time to look.”
We went back to our game until the chicken was ready. Sarah won. Whatever. I’m not bitter.
The real winners were our taste buds, though. After all the craziness of cooking the kabobs, they turned out perfectly. This was the best chicken I’ve ever eaten — I kid you not.
Not only that, but I learned an important lesson — sometimes things deserve an extra look. We may think we have things figured out, but we really just need to take some more time to survey the situation before the solution presents itself.
It’s a good thing I married such a smart wife. On top of that she’s an amazing cook. And she’s absolutely beautiful. What can I say? I married up!
Actually, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go take a longer look in my wife’s direction. I want to cherish all the moments we have. I encourage you to do the same with the ones you love.
Because it really is amazing what you see when you actually take the time to look.
