Cornbread Kindness

“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12, BSB)

Autumn marks the transition from summer to winter. Now that we’ve turned our clocks back and the sun is setting sooner, the change is even more apparent. However, it was Mama’s sweet cornbread that marked the new season in our house. Mama made it with cornmeal, buttermilk, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and bacon drippings, and it was the best cornbread this side of heaven.

Her cornbread was Mama’s offering of kindness. She knew how much we loved it, so she made batches when the cooler temperatures and shorter days came around. I remember standing in the kitchen of my childhood home many times, watching Mama make her cornbread without a recipe or measuring cups. It was almost as popular as she was, evidenced by the empty pans after each round of baking. Her cornbread baking was an authentic example of Christian kindness, offered to her kids from a spirit of love.

When I left home, Mama told me I’d need to learn how to make her cornbread because it was my favorite. She gave me the recipe one day, when I was craving a bite of it and the many crumbs it left behind. But I never actually learned to make it. What I learned was to commemorate her spirit of kindness, to shine a light in dark places.

Who will benefit from your kindness this Thanksgiving season? It has been a challenging year for many people, whether from the death of a loved one, job loss, a grueling election season, or the stresses and anxieties of navigating life after a post-pandemic pandemic, and now the flu season. As Christians, we should offer unlimited batches of kindness to the people we interact with every day. We should find joy in kindness to others all year, whether it’s the beginning of January or the end of December. The apostle Paul urged God’s people to “clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

My hope this season is that we light the candle of gratitude within us to celebrate Jesus’s victory of good over evil, wisdom over mere knowledge, and light over darkness. May our spirit of kindness reflect brightly in a world that desperately needs light, and may we also shine our flashlight of kindness in dark places to remind our earthly brothers and sisters that they’re never alone. Amen!