I bake biscuits for my daughter’s art studio.
Yesterday I made two batches of chocolate chip cookies. Technically, they are chocolate chunk cookies because I use chocolate pieces rather than the traditional drop-shaped chocolate chips. I rely on the beater to break the pieces up into smaller chunks.
I measure the dough in a plastic tablespoon measure to ensure that each biscuit contains the same amount of dough and shape them roughly into domes which get flattened. I got to thinking about how life is like a chocolate chip cookie. The biscuit part is fairly plain and predictable like everyday life. Every now and then we bite into a piece of chocolate and those are the special moments, the memorable moments.
Each cookie is unique, being more or less round and containing a different number of chocolate bits which are themselves different sizes. We are individually even more unique, because our Creator has more variables and parameters to work with. We cannot compare ourselves to others because, although we are all human, we are also all as different as our fingerprints. God deals with us individually.
We dare not compare ourselves with others. We need to be content with who we are. We are the biscuits and God is the Baker. The biscuits have no say in their size or shape or how many bits of chocolate they contain. The Baker chooses. Paul writes in Romans 9, “For who is able to resist his will? But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’“(vs 19-20 NIV)
Moreover, unless they are baked, biscuits are nothing more than lumps of dough. Every one of us has to go through a baking, or refining stage. God turns up the heat on us by using difficulties, trials, pain or suffering. These are not pleasant or easy times for us. The dough would not choose to go into the oven, but it’s the only way it can be turned into biscuits.
“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:7 NLT)
My Prayer
Lord, You have made me exactly who I am. You assembled my genes and planned my life experiences. May I accept the self You made me and trust You to work out Your will in my life. I rest in Your wisdom and love in times of trial and difficulty and rejoice in Your goodness in chocolate chip times. Amen.
Coffee in the Rain 