Eternal Pizza

Is there anything quite as powerful as a smell to nudge us along on a little walk down memory lane?

A few days ago, I stepped through the doors of my kids' elementary school and got a blast from the past.  Wafting down the hall from the cafeteria was the aroma of pizza.  Not Domino's.  Not Pizza Hut.  Not Papa John's.

Pizza a la cafeteria.

From when I was in elementary school.

Thirty years ago.

How could it be that the pizza being served to the students that day was the same from thirty years ago?  (Not the same-same pizza, but you get the idea.)

Was it the smell of the bread?  The same white dough pressed out into rectangular crusts?

Was it the smell of the sauce?  The same tomato sauce poured from the ten pound can?

Was it the smell of the cheese?  The same mozzarella, bought in bulk and sprinkled haphazardly?

Whatever it was ... it was the same.

This astonishing aroma would lead me to believe that somewhere in the back of the cafeteria there is a cookbook that has been passed down from cafeteria manager to cafeteria manager.  Decades of meals used again and again to feed the masses.

"Sloppy Joe's for 100"


"Tuna Casserole for a Crowd"


"Chili and Cinnamon Rolls - Serves 8 Dozen"


"Rectangular Pizza for the Throng"

How is it that this pizza lunch hasn't changed?

I chuckled about this eternal pizza as I made my way to the cafeteria to see my kids.  A pizza that has been around yesterday, today, and apparently, tomorrow.  And maybe that's okay, seeing as it was my favorite school lunch and my boy will spend his own hard-earned money when Pizza Day rolls around.  If it's not broke, I guess there's no reason to change it!

But as great as that pizza is (in my memory, at least), it's still just that.  Pizza.  And it's not really eternal - it just seems like it!

In reality there is only One Who can truly claim to be eternal.

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)


And He's better than pizza any day!