Green. The color green. Some see waving grass, towering evergreens; others a wallet filled with money. And a few think of emeralds or jade.

          Although I love God’s creations of grass and trees, when someone mentions the color green, I think of spaghetti and my niece Stephanie.

          While in her teens, Steph decided to try making spaghetti sauce from scratch. She put tomato sauce, garlic, and other seasonings in a pot. However, while adding the latter, the shaker top of the oregano container popped off and a half cup dumped into the sauce. She tried fishing some out, but the sauce still ended up quite green and a tad bitter as her father testified later.

          For fun one day soon after this catastrophe, when Steph joined us for supper, I made spaghetti, but when boiling the pasta, I added several drops of green food coloring. (Try it! It’s fun! We’ve even tried blue and orange.) The noodles turned a lovely shade of velvety green.

          Steph laughed when she saw her plate and said it looked very Christmas-y with the red sauce on it. We grabbed a Santa cap, stuffed it on Steph’s head, and told her to hold the plate of green and red spaghetti and pose for a picture.

          “Tilt the plate a little,” my husband said, holding the camera.

          “Like this?” Steph replied and turned the plate completely vertical. The spaghetti slid off the plate, sloshing to the floor. Silence filled the room, as we watched spaghetti noodles and sauce pool on the floor, seep between the cracks in the vinyl chair seats, and run in red streaks down the cupboard doors. Steph stood with the empty plate in her hand and looked from her cousins to me to her uncle.

          We all held our breath, sure we’d hear a roar. (Sometimes, my husband doesn’t appreciate messes!) But soon, a laugh started, followed by girlish giggles. Then we all howled until our sides hurt. Eventually, we cleaned up the spaghetti, but the memory of that laughter has lasted much longer than the chairs with the spaghetti sauce stains.

          I like to think about what Jesus would have done had He been sitting at our table. I feel certain I know.

 *** To share your favorite “green” story with us, click on the words beside the date on the line below the title to this post. Then scroll down past the other comments to find a box at the bottom with the line, “Leave a Reply.” I’m excited to read your stories!

 *** Stop by next Monday to read how coffee became synonymous with love for me!