Psalm 23:5 – You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (NIV)

I have always loved coffee, but as my girls have grown to enjoy it too, I have come to love it even more! While growing up, I had a divided home: Dad was a pot-a-day coffee drinker, but my mom loved hot tea in the morning. My sweet grandma, Mary Helen Camp, was the one who whetted my appetite for the delicious brew when I was just a little girl and coffee was a somewhat forbidden adult treat. I remember her having her coffee cup sitting on a saucer so as to catch the overflow as she heaped sugar and cream into it. After she had stirred it just right, with the saucer catching the extra, she would let me drink the sweet concoction right from the saucer, since it had cooled enough for me to drink. It was heavenly, as I remember it! I felt privileged to partake in this treat as we all listened to Arthur Godfrey on the radio. In my childish mind, I determined that when I grew up, I would drink coffee from a cup, and like grandma, a saucer would catch the overflow. With the coming of giant mugs, I don't often drink from a cup with a saucer, but when I do, warm feelings of my sweet grandma come to mind.

As I think of that coffee of my youth, I wonder how much I would have loved my "Joe" if bitterness were the overflow from her cup. My grandma was a divorced woman when divorce was far less accepted than it is now. Because of her divorce, she found herself penniless, unskilled, and uneducated. She had to take jobs that nowadays would be considered menial, but throughout my life growing up, she was always there for my family and me. At best, in the eyes of onlookers, she was a pretty ordinary woman, or at worst, she was known as "that divorcee". She had many reasons to be bitter and to fill her cup with the biting resentment and hatred that betrayal and hurt sometimes bring. But she chose the better, which was love. For me, her cup always overflowed with love. I am so glad that I was there to drink of the overflow, and it was sweet!

Romans 15:13 – May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NIV)

With what does the cup of your life overflow?

Prayer: Lord, help us to keep our overflow as sweet as possible. In Christ, we pray. Amen.