The next food on the menu for the Thanksgiving Feast was macaroni & cheese. The kids all liked macaroni & cheese and they wanted to make a lot of it! The kids asked the Leader how they were going to make a lot of macaroni and cheese, they wanted to fill a big bowl, but they knew that a box of macaroni & cheese makes only a small amount. The Leader told them that they would buy many boxes of macaroni & cheese and then make them all at once so that they could fill that big bowl.
They would boil water in two large metal pots on the stove so that they could cook all the macaroni at once. Then the Leader would lift the pots off the stove and pour the water and cooked macaroni into the stainer. The macaroni would go back into the pots and some of the kids would have the job of adding cheese powder, butter, and milk. The kids chosen for this job would have to be good at math, because they would need to calculate the right amounts of butter and milk to use for this much macaroni. After the cheese powder, butter, and milk were mixed thoroughly into the macaroni, then it could all be dumped into the big bowl and it would be ready to be served!
The Leader asked the kids why they liked macaroni & cheese so much. The kids thought for a few moments, and then one of the kids said that macaroni & cheese made her feel warm inside. One of the boys said that macaroni & cheese just made him feel good all over.
The Leader told the kids that many people felt this way about macaroni & cheese. Foods like this make people feel good and bring them comfort. In fact, quite often foods like macaroni & cheese are called comfort foods because they help people to relax, get warm, and feel good.
Being comforted is very important! Just like comfort foods, like macaroni & cheese, help a person feel good, God also brings comfort into the life of a believer.
In the Bible in II Corinthians 1:3-7 it says:
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
The Leader told the kids that in this life on earth each person will go through many things that are difficult, but God has promised that He will send comfort to those who have accepted Jesus into their life. God sends His comfort in several different ways; sometimes the comfort comes from reading the Bible, sometimes the comfort comes when the person is spending time alone with God and praying, sometimes the comfort comes from hearing the teaching of God’s Word at Church or on the radio or a podcast, and sometimes God sends His comfort through another person who has gone through a similar problem.
God always sends comfort to a believer! God will help each believer through every problem that they encounter here in this life. Once God has provided the comfort and brought the person through the problem, then that person is able to give comfort to another believer that is going through a similar problem.
So, do not worry when problems come up, God will provide comfort for the believer, and then that believer will be able to provide comfort to someone else!