I thought I’d share a funny little story with you. A while back a man approached me with a strange question. He’d heard me make references to my heritage before, and so he approached me with a curious look on his face and began to ask a few questions.

“You’re a Cajun man, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” I smiled back.

“Well, shouldn’t Cajuns be kind of dark-skinned and brown-eyed? You’re light-skinned and blue-eyed.”

Hmmm. That’s a good question, I thought. I laughed to myself and then I answered it the best I could.

“Well, there’s somebody in the woodpile. And we don’t know who it is and we didn’t ask!”

“Well, who did your ancestors marry?” he asked with curiosity.

“Anybody they could find!”

When you live on the swamp all your life and the only things you see are alligators, any woman will look good! So when some toothless woman comes along and you go, “Mama! What’s happening! You lookin’ fine!” That woman will put a kiss on you so sloppy it’ll cover you whole face!

I don’t know who everybody married back then! Obviously they weren’t too prejudiced though, because just take a look at me! My hair is white now but it used to be chocolate brown. I loved it. It was beautiful!

But get this: I grow a red beard but all the hair on the rest of my body is blond! Figure that one out! There is no telling who’s in the woodpile in my family!

I’ve had people ask me, “What is a Cajun?”

By now, who knows? I do know that originally Cajuns were called Acadians and they were people who emigrated from France (because they got kicked out) and went to Nova Scotia. Then (because they got kicked out again) they traveled to America and followed the Mississippi River to the very end of Louisiana, where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Most settled along the waterways (bayous) that wind through the land where the swamp waters were plentiful with seafood and the land was full of wild deer and duck. (Sounds like a brochure, huh?)

Cajun isn’t a race of people really… I think it’s more like a culture. Although the Cajun people are still predominantly French, we’ve got healthy mixtures of people from places like Germany and Ireland. And of course there were many Native Americans here, so they’re in the woodpile, too. To be honest, by the time you get this far South, just about every one is mixed and few are pureblood anything. You know us French…we’re a lovin’ people! Whoever came to town was good enough to marry!

Cajuns are just part of the melting pot of America. But in this melting pot, we cook better food than anywhere you’ll ever go! You get all of those different people swapping recipes and spices and you’ve got one good gumbo!

Some people think Cajun food is just hot, but those of us who live here know better. Most people outside of south Louisiana think a bottle of cayenne pepper is all you need to make food “Cajun.” But it’s the flavor, not the fire, that makes a Crawfish Bisque so good you want to slap your grandma!

But you know, God isn’t prejudiced like people are. He doesn’t care if you’re a purebred proper Englishman or a mixed-breed casual Cajun. God loves our differences and treats all of His children as if we were His favorite. Why? Because He can’t help Himself! His love is too consuming! It’s His nature to pour out too much of it!

God is looking for a people who He can intimately talk with on a daily basis. People who are unafraid of Him and who are ready to accept the love that He’s pouring out. God is looking for people who are willing to put aside the world’s views and start paying attention to His views. Simply to drop the religion and begin having a relationship with Him.