Does Jesus Eat Waffles?

When I opened facebook this afternoon, the top news post was a status update about a friend's early morning trip to the Waffle House and the declaration that God eats breakfast at the Waffle House - the one in Weatherford, Texas no less.  Ha!  It was top news because so many people were responding to it, some agreeing, some disagreeing.  I laughed out loud and proceeded to peruse other items.

A short time later, while driving from my parents' house toward my own home, I passed a Waffle House.  Honestly, I shuddered a bit.  My experiences at various Waffle Houses have been few and far between and rarely, if ever, pleasant.  Words like smelly, greasy, and unclean come to mind when I think of this establishment, and that's just to describe the patrons.  As I passed the Waffle House, I thought, "Caleb could not be more wrong.  God does not eat breakfast at the Waffle House.  Gross!"

But, of course, quick on the heals of that thought was that quiet, firm, familiar voice, loud yet not audible.  "Of course I do!  I love smelly, greasy, unclean people.  There's not one of them I don't long to introduce myself to.  Perhaps you'd like to do the honors?"  I think I literally shook my head even though I was alone in my car.  You see, I have a serious prejudice against smelly people.  The idea of my Savior, sitting at a greasy counter, between a bunch of huddled up, smelly, dirty people galls me.

And, it beckons me.  For certainly, if He would be counted among them, then there is a place for me among them as well lest I forget that I have been smelly, too.  All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)  And I hear that voice call, gently, "Come, Kristen, and die.  Die to self.  Die to pride.  Die to affluence that would keep you from abundance."  

My parents attend a large church that actually has a restaurant within its facilities.  Often, when my extended family is in town, we all meet up for brunch there at the church.  This morning, I was sitting toward the back of the sanctuary, near a door that leads toward the restaurant, and the fragrance of waffles and French toast floated through our section each time someone slipped in late.  By the time we sang the last song, and the doors were thrown open, I was craving something I hadn't even been thinking about when I first sat down, and it reminds me that 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says, in Christ, we have the opportunity to spread a different aroma and stir up a life-changing craving ...

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.


Oh, that we would not forget that we were once smelly, too.  That we would not fail to see Christ at the waffle counter, or miss the opportunity to spread His life-giving aroma to the world.


Jesus definitely eats waffles.