Let There Be Tea!

Painting by Sandy Lynam Clough

in the book If Teacups Could Talk by Emilie Barnes

"Somehow, taking tea together encourages an atmosphere of intimacy when you slip off the timepiece in your mind and cast your fate to a delight of tasty tea, tiny foods, and thoughtful conversation."
~ Gail Grecco

I've always wanted to own the painting pictured above because it reminds me to stop and sit down to tea with my girl. Ever since she was just a little thing I enjoyed making a pot of tea and finding some small delights to make her big brown eyes dance. However, everyday demands have a way of taking all our energy and it is easy to forget to stop and create a little beauty to enjoy life.

In the middle of winter my sweet Queenie and I would plan a tea party, a Valentine Friendship Tea Party. I wanted to teach my girl to enjoy and celebrate friendship around Valentine's Day and counter the culture that says, you need to have a boy admirer to feel special. She and I would plan a menu, assemble a guest list, make invitations, and think of things to create to give as party favors.

I was the hostess for the Mommy table and Queenie learned to be a gracious hostess and tea mum (pouring out tea for each guest). The four consecutive tea parties we hosted since she was four remind me of how much she changed. The preschool girls drank punch in their teacups. Once they were in second grade she was enjoying a children's tea (no caffeine - a rooibos) with real tea sandwiches.

As I've struggled with a new pain and with a few more limitations I haven't felt well enough to even do the daily tasks of caring for my home. How could I give myself permission to use priceless energy on something that seems fleeting and frivolous? However, I've found my tank of emotional reserves on empty for the last few months. The need to make something worth admiring and sharing would be life giving to my soul.

Several years passed and every year she requested that we do another tea party. I put it off for reasons I do not remember. This year I tried to do it again but pain made me second guess it. My husband wrote me a note that helped me rethink it. He said, "I am always intrigued when you do things like your tea parties, because they reflect you. It's like watching some of the beauty you have deep down inside come out in a way that everyone can bask in it. I think that's why your guests enjoy it so much - it creates an opportunity for them to experience beauty that they normally don't have. The monotony of life can have a choking effect on beauty, and we can become accustomed to living without it if we're not careful. Your tea parties force us all to stop, break the routine, and enjoy the finer things. That is a blessing for everyone involved, and it is a reflection of you. That's why the tea party is a good thing regardless of the other details. You're bringing life into a broken world. So, let there be tea."

So there was tea! I had to rethink some details but this was the push I needed to get over the hurdle and do it. I'm glad I did because it was life giving to my soul to create beauty and share it with special friends. I think this was a part of what God made me to do.

God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them, (Genesis 1:26-27)." No other created thing bears the very image of God. To be a image bearer means many things including creativity. Humans can make things, not from nothing like our Creator, but from the materials he has given. It brings him pleasure to see me create dainty things to be enjoyed by others. I can reflect my Maker in using the gifts he has given me. And that is life giving to my soul.

"Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? --how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea." ~ Rev. Sydney Smith in Lady Holland's Memoir