Sometimes we make cookies. Usually they are not from scratch, and I don’t apologize for that. I have a lot going on, most of which revolves around my family, so therefore, if I can’t provide homemade cookies for them they will have to cope with that reality in their lives.
Without fail, whether from scratch or the blessed tub they sell in the refrigerated section, my kids ask for some of the dough before the cookies are done. Something to hold them over, of course. I do my best to make those two spoons of cookie dough even and equal. The kids do their best to examine to the level of atomic weight (yes, I am saying they would scrutinize down to the atomic level) which spoon has more dough. Especially if one is delivering the spoon to the other, then she has the full weight of the decision on her own shoulders…and has to live with that decision. It’s pretty intense.
No matter how hard I try, they always seem to determine one spoon is better than the other. I sometimes wonder if they think it’s a measurement of how much I love them, which is why I have long since retired from handing out the spoons. I lay them down and let the girls decide. It’s too dicey in there for me.
But as my youngest scrutinized tonight, it reminded me how much this is our human nature. Measuring to see what is better, worse. Examining, judging to see which of us gets the better spoon. Don’t we do that in life too, on a bigger scale? We look around our neighborhood and try to figure out who’s doing the best financially. We look around our office and try to see who is going to be in line for the next promotion, or who seems to be the boss’ favorite. We look around our churches and decide who is the best Christian or worse, who is not measuring up. Not enough on the spoon.
And don’t even get me started on the school PTO.
You know, God did this amazing thing. He sent His Son to make sure we were all good enough no matter what we have on the spoon. Good thing, because we have so little on that spoon that you would HAVE to use atomic weight to measure it. Most days I feel like my spoon is empty. Our human nature compels us to try to be good enough, to have enough, to do enough. It’s a lie, of course. But as the most dangerous lies do, it comforts us. Makes us forget we need a Savior.
Isaiah 28:16-17 says Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies And the waters will overflow the secret place.” It is the promise of Christ to a nation that may not even fully understand yet how much they need Him.
A nation that doesn’t even know about cookie dough.
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