I love to bake! To me, there is something so satisfying in the perfectly chewy, gooey chocolate chip cookie, or the chocolate cake with a moist dense crumb, and light and luscious lemon cake. Part of it is in the actual making of it and having it come out to perfection, and the other part is in the enjoyment of the final product. Especially when shared with others and the nice comments when they too enjoy or appreciate it.
This weekend, I tried a new and totally different (for me) recipe for blueberry muffins. It had ingredients I don't usually use in my muffins and I knew it would be an experiment. When I pulled them out of the oven they were more brown than I usually bake and looking a trifle too brown I was a little concerned I had overdone it.
After about 3 minutes on the cooling rack I knew it was the opposite. They were underdone! The middles caved in and they were inedible.
A few days later, here I am writing this for me and sharing with you.
These muffins are often like us.
If we want a light tasty muffin, we not only have to have the right ingredients, but we have to bake it long enough. We have to expose it to the heat until it is cooked through and the chemical magic happens.
Dealing with a really hard struggle with one of my boys, I have found myself at my wits end and asking the Lord, "Isn't this enough? Aren't we done with this yet? Can you wrap this up already?"
Only to find the answer is, not yet.
He knows when all of the processes are complete. When we have been fully baked and then He can pull us out of the oven for the enjoyment.
I feel like the Cookie Monster of Sesame Street days. Constantly looking in the oven demanding, "Cookies done yet?" only to find they aren't and I have to keep doing all my usual stuff and then coming again, "Cookies done yet", and shaking my head, walking away, "Cookies not done yet."
But I also am excited to see the finished product, to taste the perfection I know will come in the next life when I am done. When He has finished His work on me, on my heart, on my weaknesses. When he has taken the perfectly chosen ingredients and baked them to perfection.
Don't give up on yourself or another! I find myself getting discouraged when I think about where we are at and the long road ahead, but I keep having to remind myself that even a great cake takes time. If I want perfection in a cake it requires great ingredients, proper mixing, and just the right amount of baking.
We were made of great ingredients! We can't lose sight of that! And each of us has different ones. We will each be a different and unique and delicious creation. We have the ingredients in us. Now we need to let the Master Baker expose us to the heat until we become what He is creating us to be.
Don't give up, you don't want to have a soggy unbaked middle!
