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I’m going through a challenging season. Many changes and discussions of what it looks like to let go of things. As someone who craves stability, this has been difficult, to say the least.  

I learned recently there is a phrase that encapsulates this feeling that I’ve not been able to escape for a long time now. The saying goes: “Surveiller comme le lait sur le feu.” It translates to “watch like milk on the fire”. Anyone who has ever cooked probably knows that blinking while milk is on the stove is hazardous. It can go from barely bubbling to downright overflowing in a second.  

This saying is used to convey the sense that you have a situation in your life right now that doesn’t allow you to realistically focus on anything else, like watching a pot of milk on the stove. One of those pots of milk in my life is my mom’s house. She has been trying to sell it and move in with us since before COVID hit. But between a messy divorce, and an uncooperative bank, things were slow moving to say the least. And then COVID. Which, as we all know, put a stop to many things, including the selling of her house. So we sat in limbo for a year, waiting for life to return to normal. A year of decluttering and packing and sorting. And then overnight, the moratorium was lifted. Within days, my mom had dozens of people walking in and out of her house, inspecting, reviewing, photographing. And suddenly, we’re spending an entire weekend moving out boxes, running trash to the dumpster, and preparing for a massive moving sale with a deadline looming over our heads. The milk overflowed, and I’m more than ready to get this pot off the stove.  

So what can we do when it feels like the very ground beneath our feet is trembling and threatening to boil over just when we least expect it? We can remember that while everything around us is changing, the Spirit of the One who never changes lives within us. (Isaiah 40:28; 1 John 4:4). 

The milk has reached its boiling point and now God, the Father who loves me and has promised me that He would make all things work together for my good (Romans 8:28), can make something with it that I never could. I can surrender safe in the knowledge that the milk’s boiling didn’t take Him by surprise, and whatever He’s making will be more than worth the mess created to get there.  

“11 For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Jeremiah 29:11 Modern English Version 

You are loved. 

Brianna Richardson