Rosemary

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance,
Pray you love, remember.”
Shakespeare, Hamlet

“God…uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ…”
2 Corinthians 2:14-15

My first job off the family dairy farm was at “Sugar ‘N Spice” in Chetek, Wisconsin. It was a wholesale spice supply store at which my job description ran the gamut, from helping staple and label spice bags for shipment to stirring up a five gallon bucket of raw peanut butter for storefront customers. There was a lovely alcove embedded in the middle of the storefront that was my favorite place to linger, where the pretty shelves held alluring glass jars filled with dried flowers, vials of exotic essential oils, and other sundry items like handmade soaps.

I loved my job! My sister Angela, however, will be the first to tell you that she did not love how I smelled when I came home from work, but the cows didn’t care! There was definitely a unique fragrance that clung to a person’s clothes after being in the store, and customers either loved it or wrinkled their nose in distaste upon entering. Folks couldn’t forget where they’d been after setting foot in our store.

Isn’t that how it should be for followers of Christ, that folks wouldn’t be able to shake the feeling that there was something different about us? That our fragrance would linger even after our departure. There are those who will feel revived and encouraged when we are with them; others may even wrinkle their noses in distaste, at times. That shouldn’t dishearten us for long, as long as we are always walking integrously and honorably toward others.

Rosemary’s reputation is for remembrance. This “dew of the sea” was affectionately fixed upon as the symbol for fidelity at weddings, a visible exhortation to the bride and groom to remember their vows while they walked out their marriage and for those who grieve to remember their loved ones who had passed on. These qualities are sorely lacking in our cancel culture, where we are more apt to remember our own grievances instead of humbly serving and walking in forgiveness toward others.

May this dew of the sea teach us to remember to think of others in their best light, to “Love one another in spite of your differences, in spite of your faults…and make the best of one another,” as Arthur P. Stanley writes (Tileston, p.172). “It is very easy to fix our attention only on the weak points of those around us, to magnify them, to irritate them, to aggravate them; and, by so doing, we can make the burden of life unendurable, and can destroy our own and others’ happiness and usefulness wherever we go.” Just as when I grind my rosemary with the pestle and mortar for cooking, may I grind out selfish and prideful thoughts and allow the Holy Spirit to bake into me a fragrance of gentleness and compassion, a pleasing aroma as I sacrifice the inconsistencies of my nature to Him.

Rosemary Chicken

6 chicken breasts
Olive oil or flavored oil
Salt
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp dried and ground rosemary (I use a copious amount!)
¼ c. Chicken broth

Place chicken breasts on sprayed baking dish. Pour broth around chicken and drizzle oil and salt over each breast. Sprinkle garlic and Rosemary over each breast, and bake for 25 minutes at 400°.