This delicious little slice of heaven is called Burek. It is my new favorite food! It's like a pizza-shaped wedge of flaky, pastry-y, meat-and-oniony goodness dripping with grease and calories. I can literally feel my pants getting tighter with every bite I take. I have had to limit my burek intake, and have saved a copy of a picture of the dress I want to wear in my wedding to my desktop to look at for resistance powers when I am struck with the sudden urge to partake of this delicacy. Yep. It's THAT good.
Wednesday (my goodness, was that just yesterday?!) I had kind of a slow day, so I decided to watch a movie (AKA Pride and Prejudice, because that's the only one I have saved to my computer...Netflix doesn't work over here). The girls were all at school so my house was devoid of my posse, and I was laying in bed still in my pajamas at the ridiculous hour of 12 PM when my stomach let out a growl that would have even frightened Mufasa. I was like, "Okay, stomach, I guess I have to get up and feed you now." But I didn't really want to get up, and I kept telling myself that at the end of the next scene I would get up and make lunch. And when I DID finally get up to make lunch, I had just put my feet on the floor when the voice of an angel came floating up the stairs, calling my name.
...Okay. Not really an angel. But it WAS my landlord, and when she calls up the stairs at me, it usually means that she either has coffee or food for me (or sometimes both!).
Y'all. She had burek. And not the kind you buy from the store, either; this was real, honest-to-goodness, homemade burek.
It was heavenly. I wish I had a picture of it, but it was so good that I devoured it before I thought to take a picture!
Storebought burek can be kind of lukewarm sometimes; sometimes the onions in it are a bit overpowering, and let's face it--sometimes it's soggy. The warm, flaky crust on top more often than not is just a greasy, chewy layer of dough by the time I get from the bakery to my house, and the bits that ARE still crunchy are only crunchy because they're burned. But Shemcija's burek, well, it's like comparing the steaks at Waffle House to the steaks that my dad makes. As in, there is no comparison. It was still warm from the oven, and the top layer was just perfectly golden brown, and it wasn't soggy, AND it wasn't super greasy. She gave me an end piece so two sides were crispy crusty goodness, and it was filled with real, honest-to-goodness beef and not stray cat (because let's face it; with bakery burek sometimes it's better to not ask "qka mish eshte ky?", or "what meat is this?").
I never thought that God would teach me a spiritual lesson at the hands of a meat-filled pastry, but He did. I guess if Moses can receive a spiritual tongue-lashing from a burning bush it's no weirder than being spoken to by burek! I realized, after being given a piece of Shejma's burek, that life is a lot like a slice of burek! Day in and day out we eat our bakery burek, blissfully happy to be consuming something so stinkin' delicious. This burek is the only kind we've ever known, and to us it's perfect and beautiful and flawless and The Best Thing Ever.
And then, one day, someone gives us homemade burek. And we realize what God has been trying to give us, if we would just open our eyes and listen! And we cling stubbornly to our bakery burek, because that's what we know. But our eyes have been opened, and we realize what we are missing out on. We are settling for bakery burek (which we have to PAY for, by the way!) and all its oniony, greasy, chewy glory, and the Lord is standing at the bottom of the stairs calling our name and saying, "I made burek for you! Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live!" -Isaiah 55:1-3
...Really? I'm going to continue to eat chewy, greasy, stray cat pastry when I could have delicious, warm, crispy REAL burek? That stuff I was eating before was just a cheap imitation of the good stuff! And the Lord himself is calling my name, saying, "You silly girl! Open your eyes and just take the burek already!"
Clearly I'm not saying that once we accept Christ we will all be gifted with wonderful landlords who regularly bring us burek. But I AM saying that without Christ, we are living the bakery burek lifestyle. The things that we work and toil for--they are just a cheap imitation of what we will be and do once we have life in Christ, because we have died to sin, and to pastries stuffed with stray cats, and have become alive in Christ Jesus! How could I ever eat bakery burek ever again? If I eat the Lord's burek, my soul will live!
Eternal life? You can't argue with that!
No comments:
Post a Comment