My great Aunt Fish owned and operated a tea house in the small upstate New York farming village of Otego for several years. At some time or other nearly all of her female family members, including my mother, were employed at the tea house. It was a popular place for people to come for Sunday dinner. The specialties were fried chicken and steaks. Customers came up from New York City for Sunday dinner and the famous chocolate cake with a four inch high meringue icing. Auntie Fish’s pies were legendary.

The tea House was an oasis of good food set in the midst of a community of family dairy farms and rolling hills. I never saw the house while my great aunt owned it, but I was raised on stories of the place, and recipes that I still enjoy.

The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert; His righteousness live in the fertile field. The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. (Isaiah 32:18)

That small town seemed to me to be an “undisturbed place of rest” whenever we visited it. We had grandparents and cousins and friends who were their neighbors, and it was always a welcoming place to visit. My family was treated like natives; it was always a joy to hear my parents say, “We’re going to Otego.”

When I finally read the book of Isaiah for myself I was surprised that the writer must have had a place like Otego in his mind when he wrote of quietness and confidence, of fertile fields and peace , and I thought that God surely loves the things that we love, and looks with joy on many of the things that bring us joy.
In the tumult of today’s world it’s hard to find confidence and peace, not to mention quietness and rest; but knowing that these things are in the heart of God, and that He desires them for His people, draws me more and more to Him. It’s still possible to take a drive and see the fertile fields, to witness a breathtaking sunset and a peaceful sunrise; and to know that these things are His gift to us.

Auntie Fish finally sold the tea house, and gained fame when she went to work for a department store in a near by city. She made pies for their lunch counter. It is said in our family that in one day around Christmas Auntie Fish baked one hundred pies, mostly apple.

Love in Him,
Prue