Friday Night Dinner – A Reflection on the Sabbath

All through my elementary and high school years, I remember my family always being busy. My parents worked long hours and many times brought work home, my 3 siblings and I were involved in a myriad of activities ranging from school work, extra-curricular activities, participating in competitive team sports, music groups, holding leadership positions at school, and even volunteering in church-related programs. With all the responsibilities each member in the family had, it was always difficult for the whole family to spend much time together.

That’s why we usually designated Friday night dinners to a small group consisting of our family and 2 other families that we were extremely close to. It became pretty much a tradition throughout the years: our Friday night potlucks. No matter how busy our schedule was that week, we’d always have that specific meal where we’d be together. It was a time of happiness and companionship. Throughout the week, I would find myself looking forward to those dinners because I felt contentment and delight when we assembled together. Those meals sort of reminded me of how God set the seventh-day Sabbath as a specific time where we could rest from the hectic schedules of our week and just spend time with Him. Friday night dinners, just like the Sabbath, were set times in my mind where I could be assured that I’d have a great time and feel contentment, enjoyment, and overall peace. It was a time of fellowship.

Another meal I felt was quite spiritual was when my siblings and I decided to put together a special meal for our parents. Like I mentioned earlier, we’re quite the busy family and can’t always eat meals together. But one Sunday, we decided that we wanted to surprise our parents. So while they were busy running errands or playing tennis, we got the meal ready. My sister and I, being the two oldest prepared all the food. We prepared baked-salmon seasoned with Creole, an oriental soy-sauce mix, and topped with sautéed slices of ginger and green onions. We had also cooked a common Filipino noodle dish called pancit (very similar to lomein), baked vegetarian dinner roast, fried some egg rolls, and had two pieces of crispy cream-cheese wontons. To top it off, my sister and I also prepared a dessert dish called tuxedo brownies. The tuxedo brownies, while it doesn’t really “go” with the rest of the meal, had a rich layer of chocolate Hershey brownies, a thin layer of raspberry jelly resting between the brownies and layer of cream-cheese/white chocolate/whipped cream mixture, and topped with fresh raspberries.

While the meal was very delicious, the best part was my parent’s expression when they came back. They were really surprised and very grateful for all the work we did to put things together. For me, it was really great because we had the opportunity to sit together and eat as a family. While most families (I’m guessing) are used to eating meals together, my family doesn’t really do the traditional everyone eating at the table meals. We eat when our schedules allow, and most times our meal time schedules don’t really match up. That’s why that particular meal was so special to me: I had the opportunity to do something for my parents. The Bible says to honor our parents and through the preparation of the meal, I was honoring my parents for all they’ve done for me.