Want richness? Cook stews and chili using a mirapoux.

Combine celery, carrots, and onions together, and you made a mirapoux. Most often a mirapoux seasons our turkeys on Thanksgiving Day. We place celery, carrots, and onions around and inside the turkey before baking it. Carrots add a touch of sweetness to the bird. Celery adds a bit of saltiness, and onions add not only a little more sweetness, but, also they add, what shall I say ... "Onion-i-ness"? A mirapoux, I recently learned, makes rich and thick bases for stews and chili. Blenderize a mirapoux in a couple cups of stock or tomato sauce, and, "Voila", you just created a smooth, thick and rich soup base ready and waiting for any fixings you toss into the pot.

I hear some saying, "You're a pastor and not a cook. Stick to what you know."

Well, how about this?

I know how Jesus taught about rich treasure. He said to a rich man in Matthew 19:21, "... If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." [English Standard Version]

Jesus taught that richness and treasure grow because of relationships with different types of people, like the rich man's relationship with people different from himself - the poor. Jesus told this man, "Take your gifts to those who live differently from you and who struggle day by day without many gifts. Spend a day with those folks, or spend a week or a month. Get to know them. Mix with them; and, as you blend with them, a richness so great will develop into a greater treasure than you now own."

Jesus' "mirapoux" included people instead of celery, carrots, and onions; and, after Jesus instructed the rich man to blend with and mix with different people, the rich man "stewed" about his problem, maybe "cooking up" a new "recipe" for a richer life. If this man chose richness beyond material wealth, Jesus' "mirapoux" hit the spot. All the rich man need do involved going to the market place, mixing with and blending with different people to produce a rich treasure he never knew.

The next time you want a richer stew or chili, try blending a mirapoux, using it for your soup base. And, if you seek a richer life filled with treasure as well, give Jesus' "mirapoux" a try.

Tom Towns is pastor of First United Methodist Church, 515 N. Park, Cortez.