Coffee Talk with God: Living with the finer things

Published 6:00 am Friday, July 21, 2017

By Staff Reports

I’m so grateful my mother was raised by, and I was able to grow up with, two great-aunts who taught me about the finer things in life. They loved antique shopping, gourmet cooking, card games and laughter. My grandfather, their brother, was a great jokester. He’d laugh at his own jokes and snapped his finger in a way that made all the kids laugh — and grownups, too.

Outliving them all, their earthly treasures have become mine, some we bought together when I was a child. These things no longer carry the monetary value they did a generation or so ago, but are still of value to me. I learned early about worth.

Before entering my senior year in high school, thanks to my parents and a regional high school band director, the summer of 1973 I traveled to Europe. I was one of five singers that performed a few songs of the band’s repertoire as part of a two-week concert tour beginning in Graz, Austria. Mostly it was a coming of age experience.

Our first stop was Brussels. A lot of old buildings, beautiful to be sure, but I grew up in New Orleans. We had old buildings. I didn’t grasp that ours were hundreds of years newer than these and had not seen the history or devastations of two World Wars.

We visited a handmade lace factory. Handmade — old ladies tying knots with bobbins. Handmade. Did I say that? I looked at a few pieces and said to myself, “We have lace like this in America,” and left the shop without purchasing anything. The lace was very expensive. 

After listening to others talking about their purchases, on our return through Brussels I had to find the shop and get a tiny piece or two. I wasn’t alone in my quest. A group of us set out to rectify the error of our ways. Without a tour guide it took five hours of walking on cobblestone streets to find the shop again. 

Finally I understood why the lace was costly. They were all one of a kind pieces of craftwork made by a generation whose artform would die with them because young girls were not interested in sitting still long enough to tie the thousands, millions of knots needed to create this beauty. Like us — each was unique and priceless. Aren’t we like that in God’s eyes?  

I can look around my house and see a lot of glass trinkets, crystal and china really, plus several pieces of needlepoint made by my great-aunts. To the casual observer, objects would appear to be dust catchers, knickknacks that clutter. I see works of art. Hand-painted-china teacups, some from occupied Japan. The Nippon chocolate mugs were once a luxury item. Now you find them on eBay discarded by generations not valuing their worth or from someone selling hand-me-downs they can do without.

Timothy, a disciple of Christ, said it this way, “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” 

Whether or not others see our value, appreciation of the finer things is in the eyes of the Beholder. Knowing you are treasured makes a world of difference.

 

Vicky Branton is the Teche Life editor of The Daily Iberian.