Baking with Bodi…

Growing up I was always in the kitchen. Helping make weeknight dinners, the Thanksgiving feast or Christmas cookies. Around the time I was in elementary school Mom and Dad started a new Birthday Tradition. We could either go out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants or make a meal at home. 99% of the time I chose to make a meal at home, usually some sort of pasta dish…

This past weekend we had some family visit over the holiday. My little cousin noticed that I was making biscuits for breakfast. I let him add in several ingredients, mix the dough, and cut out the biscuits. Later in the day I was making mashed potatoes and a chocolate cake. I’d cut the potatoes and he’d put the cubes in the pan and he loved mixing up the cake…cracking the eggs, adding the flour and cocoa powder and mixing it all together…

I loved having a little helper and watching his enthusiasm.

He was so excited to be be able to help with the smallest of tasks, learn how to do something new and he even loved to smell the food as it was cooking. I do believe that that was the first time I’d ever smelled chocolate cake batter–and of course it smelled good.

Growing up Mom and Dad always seemed eager to have us kids help in the kitchen. They enjoyed teaching us the basics of cooking and the simple math that was involved. When my cousin seemed interested I jumped at the chance to do for someone else what my parents did for me. But something that I never realized as a child is that when you have someone much younger assisting you in the kitchen the job instantly takes twice as long and there’s a bit more clean up that’s necessary…but in the end the memories mean more than the cocoa powder that spilled all over the floor (true story and it was  all MY fault)…

As I was thinking about the experience I couldn’t help but think of us and God…

1) He gives us a guide.

I consulted a recipe for the Chocolate Cake making sure that I added all the ingredients and did things in the correct order…(turns out I didn’t look thoroughly enough because I forgot to add the Baking Soda, so our cake was a little flat..) But God, He not only guides us through life taking us one step at a time but He also provides an instruction manual (the Bible) for us to look at daily and we can trust that He didn’t forget to add anything!

2) He’s carefully watching over us.

I was always careful that Bodi wouldn’t burn himself around the stove. I watched him carefully. Just like God watches over us, lovingly protecting us.

3) He cleans us up.

When we come to Him with the broken pieces of our life and repent He’ll help fix us up, eventually crafting something beautiful from our mess. Cooking can be messy just like us. In our attempts to do something in life we sometimes can get a little messy and a make a few mistakes. But when we come to God with sincere hearts of repentance He’ll guide us and help us pick up the pieces.

3) He brings us up beside Him.

Although Bodi is almost as tall as me he needed a little extra height to comfortably reach the counter so I drug a chair over for him to stand on. God does the same thing with us. He came down to our level to show us the way and then helps us get there. Just like the chair helped Bodi reach the counter the cross of Jesus helps us to reach Heaven.

Next time you find yourself slightly overwhelmed by small kitchen helpers (or small helpers in general), let it remind you of how God cares for you!

Until next time,

Bailey Sue