The Expert Baker (by Cathe Laurie)

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 ESV).

God Sees What You Can’t

Greg’s grandmother, Stella, was an incredible baker. She moved expertly in her kitchen with experience and ease gained by thousands of days of practice.

Each time she was about to begin her next creation, she placed all the ingredients out on her counter.

The lineup of ingredients, on their own, was unappealing. Buttermilk? No thanks. . . it’s sour and tastes strange. Self-rising flour? Too dry and inedible. Baking soda? Not palatable unless forced down as medicine for an upset stomach. Salt? Too salty to ever be enjoyed by itself. Certain vegetable oils? Not something I would enjoy swallowing.

If I were to walk in and have no idea what was happening, all of these ingredients would turn me away! None of them were appealing enough to tempt me to enjoy.

Yet, when they were mixed and shaped by Mama Stella’s expert hands and placed in an impossibly hot oven, they turned into the best biscuits I’ve ever tasted! How she did it was almost wizardry.

If we look at the individual pieces of our lives, we might see a sour mix of ingredients. Disappointment here, grief there, anger and hardship sprinkled throughout.

How could it ever be good?

Thankfully, we have the expert baker to the highest degree on our side! Where we might see nothing but bitter, undesirable moments, God knows just how to create something impossibly good.

God’s Plan

Baking doesn’t just require one type of ingredient or another. It is a mix of sweet, bitter, and salty, blended throughout to create a bite so perfect you forget the final product was ever a mix of pieces to begin with.

Honestly, there isn’t any plan God could present where I would eagerly agree to heartbreak and pain. But over the decades of my life, I have come to realize that trying to pick and choose the things that I would have liked to be part of my story would result in missing out on the ultimate surprising, surpassing goodness of His plan for my life.

Biblical Figures With Hardship

As beautiful as some of our stories in Scripture are, we must be familiar with the entire story of those who loved God and were called according to His purpose.

Abraham was asked to lay down his precious Isaac. Moses contended with threats from Pharoah. David endured decades running from Saul in the wilderness.

Our lives here are never promised to be perfect. But God will make them perfect.

Let the Lord Make Something Beautiful

Let the Lord take those bitter parts and make something beautiful out of them. Do not ever give up! You may feel like you’re in the fire right now, and maybe you are—maybe this is your time in the impossibly hot oven as He forms you into the beautiful creation He designed you to be.

In every high and low in life, I pray you see it all with gratitude. The expert baker knows exactly what He’s doing, and is making something new from each and every ingredient.  

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