This blogger wondered what she’d share with you on this lovely October day. Then reminiscing filled her should-be-sleeping-hours brain. As she thought thoughts, she realized this year’s been a mix of so many ups and downs, varied experiences, joys and tears, strengths and weaknesses. In a word?
Hodgepodge!
Then her curious mind wandered to think this thought: Where did the word hodgepodge come from? Because this is the type thing that fills her mind during hours it shouldn’t. When morning came, her tired old fingers typed “hodgepodge” into the search bar on her computer, and she delighted as she read.
So, this blogger shares with you that the word originated in a slightly different form but began with the making of stew—using anything and everything available to satisfy hunger. It also became a symbol, in a sense, of survival, resilience, and adaptability.
This blogger—oh, wait! That’s me!
So, I remember way back when our kids were young and we fell on hard times more than once. Yet one particular time, I recall the account I’ll share now. Our “stone soup” episode! But first let me explain the circumstances.
Being missionaries who lived on financial support from individuals and churches, may I say, has been over the past 50 years an adventure in trusting God Who has always—always—met our needs. Amongst those times of praying for provisions, there’ve been a few instances we wondered how in the world we’d feed our family of (at that time) six.
Enter the book Stone Soup! Yes, we checked it out of the library and read it to our youngsters, not realizing at that particular time its significance other than it being an intriguing story that captured their attention.
"Stone Soup" by Ann McGovern | Classic Children's Book Read Aloud
One day I opened the refrigerator to gather enough ingredients to create a meal. Was I worried? Yes. For there was sparse little to concoct anything. Then I remembered Stone Soup.
I called the kids. “Can one of you go out and fetch me a stone?”
One of the boys asked, “What kind?”
“Oooh, about the size of a potato, I guess.”
They all looked at me oddly, which they usually did—so this wasn’t otherwise notable other than this being the first time I’d asked them to bring home a rock.
“There’re lots in the backyard!” one son volunteered.
“Well, see if you can find me a nice one. I’m going to make stone soup. Think you can find a rock that’s Stone Soup-worthy?”
“Sure,” was the consensus.
But was their “differently-wired” mom really going to make them eat a stone for dinner?
While the kids hunted the main ingredient for our meal, I got our biggest pot out, filled it half-way with water, and lit the flame below.
The water was just beginning to steam when the kids flew in the back door and one proudly presented me with the rock they’d found.
“Looks like a good one!”
Their faces froze.
“Eeewww!” our germ-conscious child squealed.
“Don’t worry! I’ll wash it really well first.”
Her shoulders relaxed.
I gave that stone a good washin’ then dropped it in the pot. “Now let’s see what else we can add.”
The boys went to our nearly-bare pantry shelves, but they found veggies they thought might make a good soup and a small can of meat. And our daughter climbed on the step stool and found some macaroni in a kitchen cabinet. We had a tomato from a gentleman-gardener at church, and I chopped up a bit of onion and celery, added a few bouillon cubes, and stirred.
That evening we enjoyed our meal and gave it a we-should-make-this-again rating!
And that stone? For many years I kept it in the drawer with our other cooking utensils just in case we ever needed it again. When we moved from one place of missionary service to another, the stone came with us...
…as a reminder.
Oh, by the way, our versions of stone soup from that first attempt onward were nicknamed “maca-yummy” in our household. And, yes. I always cooked whatever we concocted with our stone in the pot!
Now, how’d I get from hodgepodge to stone soup—or maca-yummy? That’s sort of how my crazy mind works. But I began with thinking through this year we’ve had. Truly a hodgepodge of this-n-that, the good and bad, the joys and sorrows.
Our God views our lives differently, though. What might seem a hodgepodge to us is really a purposeful “list of ingredients” for the good—all needful to complete the recipe of our lives.
Be assured, believers in Christ, that all you endure here on earth is making you a “satisfying aroma” for multiple purposes in your service to other believers and to draw the lost to Christ. II Corinthians 2:15-16
So, all the 2026 ingredients up to this point and beyond remind me not about soup at all but completely about the many times our God, Who called us to serve Him, is faithful and completing us for everything that lies ahead. I Thessalonians 5:24, Philippians 1:6
No need to search for a stone if you have taken Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. For God is our Rock! With Him we can accomplish what otherwise would seem impossible. Luke 1:37
Come Taste and Savor
lyrics by Diana Nelson Haase, music by Andrew J. Robison IV, 2024
—inspired by Psalm 34:8—
#hodgepodge #StoneSoup #cookingingredients #missionarysupport #GodourRock #provisions
Photo Credit: calendar pages—alamy.com, stone—vecteezy.com, stew/soup—pngtree.com
