Christians and National Cookie Month

Did you know October is National Cookie Month? Not that I need an excuse to eat more cookies! Are you wondering about the connection between Christians and National Cookie Month? Stay with me a bit longer . . .

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe? Mine is a traditional sugar cookie that’s easy to make. But a few years ago, I became friends with a family whose daughter was allergic to wheat flour and dairy products, including butter, eggs, and milk. My challenge was to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe that didn’t include any of those ingredients, yet was still tasty. In full transparency, I doubted this was possible.

The girl’s mom suggested a cookie mix that met the requirements. So I tried the mix, using substitutes for the eggs and butter. I confess, I fully expected the results to taste like cardboard (with apologies to readers who have similar dietary limitations!).

I turned up my nose at the idea that a collection of less-than-stellar ingredients could combine to produce something tasty. I was wrong.

All this reminds me of an old Southern story:

One Sunday morning at a small southern church, the new pastor called on one of his older deacons to lead in the opening prayer. The deacon stood up, bowed his head and said, “Lord, I hate buttermilk.”

The pastor opened one eye and wondered where this was going. The deacon continued, “Lord, I hate lard.” Now the pastor was totally perplexed. The deacon continued, “Lord, I ain’t too crazy about plain flour. But after you mix ’em all together and bake ’em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits.

“Lord, help us realize when life gets hard, when things come up that we don’t like, whenever we don’t understand what You are doing, that we need to wait and see what You are making. After You get through mixing and baking, it’ll probably be something even better than biscuits. Amen.”

Aristotle is often credited with saying, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Sort of like biscuit-making.

Conformance to Jesus

The Bible addresses this same truth from the perspective of spiritual growth. In Romans 5:3-5 NIV, the apostle Paul wrote:

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Trials and suffering are life ingredients I’d rather avoid. Health issues, financial limitations, and broken relationships can conspire to leave us feeling discouraged and defeated. But when added to a life marked by faith in God, trust in Christ’s saving work, and dependence on the equipping of the Holy Spirit, the final result is better than the best biscuits hot out of the oven. Characteristics of perseverance, godly character, and hope do more than influence our perspective. They conform us to the image of God’s Son, molding us for eternity.

Better than biscuits and sweeter than cookies!

How is God using less-than-desirable circumstances in your life to draw you to Him and make you more like Christ?