A Hotplate And A Kettle

A hotplate on a shelf.

That is the kitchen. One ring, a kettle beside it, a small stack of things you have never unpacked properly because unpacking them would be admitting this is where you live.

And there is a pan in there somewhere. You know there is, because it came with you, and you have used it about twice.

Mostly the hotplate boils water. Water for coffee, water for the instant thing in the cardboard pot, water for the other instant thing. And it does that all day, faithfully, and it has never once been used for what it is.

Here is what happens when you think about cooking in that room. You look at the shelf, and the shelf says no. It says: that is not a kitchen, that is a plug and a heating element, and people who cook have counters and drawers and a second burner.

And so you boil water. Again.

So let me say the first thing plainly, before anything practical.

Nothing in this article is going to suggest you buy anything, at any price, of any kind.

One ring is the constraint here and it is staying the constraint. Nobody is going to tell you a small second pan would change everything, or that a particular item would make this easier, because the entire point is what is on that shelf right now.

What is that in thine hand

There is a moment in Exodus where a man is objecting, and God interrupts the objection with a question about equipment.

And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. (Exodus 4:2, King James Version)

What is that in thine hand. And he said, a rod.

The answer is almost comic in its flatness. A rod. A stick. The most ordinary object a man standing in a field could be holding, worth nothing, notable to nobody, and it is what the entire next section of the story runs on.

And notice the question is not what do you need. It is what is that in thine hand, which assumes the man already has something and only needs to look down.

You are being asked what is already on that shelf rather than what is missing from it, and one heating ring has never once been the same thing as an empty room. Exodus 4:2 answers an objection with a question about what a man already holds, and the Holy Spirit is the one present with somebody looking at a hotplate and deciding it does not count.

And it is worth seeing what the rod was not.

It was not chosen. Nobody selected it for its qualities. It was simply the thing he happened to have with him, and the story does not improve it or upgrade it or wait for a better one to be found.

That is a hotplate. That is exactly and precisely a hotplate.

You have something in your hand already and not a shortfall, and an ordinary object nobody would have chosen has never once been disqualified from being used. The Spirit of God is the one with somebody standing in front of one ring, and Exodus 4:2 works with what a man happened to be carrying rather than what he wished he had.

One ring is more than one thing

Here is the practical half, and it is one correction. A hotplate is not a lesser stove. It is one burner, and one burner is what almost every simple meal in the world actually uses.

Think about what you would cook if you had four. Eggs: one burner. Rice: one burner. Pasta: one burner, and the sauce goes in the same pan after the water goes out. Something with an onion in it that ends up on toast: one burner and a toaster that already exists.

The number of burners is a question about cooking two things at once, and you are not cooking two things. You are cooking one thing, tonight, for one person.

You were counting a shortage that does not apply to a single meal, and one burner has never once been fewer than a simple dinner needs. Exodus 4:2 puts the whole question on what is already in the hand, and the Holy Spirit is the one with a man who has been doing arithmetic on a shelf.

And here is the second half of the correction, which is about the pan.

That pan, used twice since the day it arrived, is a complete kitchen. It boils, it fries, it holds, it warms things through. Almost everything a person eats at home can be done in one pan and a plate, and the whole apparatus of a proper kitchen is largely about doing more things faster for more people.

You are one person. The shelf is enough.

You have a complete kitchen in one pan, and equipment for a crowd has never once been a requirement for feeding one person. The Spirit of God is the one standing with somebody about to get a pan down for the third time, and Exodus 4:2 has God working with a stick rather than sending for better.

What tonight is on that shelf

So here is the assignment. Cook one thing on that hotplate tonight, and eat it sitting down.

Tonight. One thing. One ring. Keep it plain: eggs with something in them. Rice with an egg on it. Pasta, drained, then butter and cheese and pepper back in the same pan. Do not go out and get anything, not a single item, and use what is already in that room.

It may not be good. That is expected, and it is information about a first attempt rather than about the shelf or about you.

You are using what is already in the room rather than waiting on a kitchen, and a first attempt on one ring has never once owed anybody a good result. Exodus 4:2 asks what is that in thine hand and accepts the answer, and the Holy Spirit is the one at that hotplate with somebody who finally got the pan down.

Then the second half, which is the one that does the work. Eat it sitting down, on a plate, wherever sitting down is possible in that room. A chair, the edge of a bed, a desk with the screen off. Standing at a shelf eating out of a pan is how a person eats something that does not count, and what happens tonight is going to count.

You are sitting down with it rather than standing over it, and a plate in a small room has never once been a lesser dinner than a plate anywhere else. The Spirit of God is the one there with a plate and a chair and a hotplate going cold, and Exodus 4:2 gets a whole story out of an ordinary object in an ordinary hand.