The Master Baker

As I was preparing a tres leches cake for my son’s birthday and looking at the many ingredients on the counter while beating egg whites until they were fluffy and then adding sugar to make stiff peaks form, I suddenly had a thought. These ingredients were just like the different things, good or bad, that God allowed into my life to make an end result. Alone and separate, these ingredients could be used for many different things, but unless they were mixed together in certain fashion and in the correct steps, they would not make the end result I was looking for, the tres leches cake. Add too much of this or too little of that, or don’t mix the egg whites long enough, and disaster would result instead of a very moist, heavy and delicious cake.

The same could be said for the good things God gives us (blessings) and the bad things God lets happen to us (our trials and disasters). Too many good things, and we would be spoiled; feeling little need for God in every detail of our lives. The opposite is also true, however; too many disasters and trials, and we could become so weary and worn that we begin to question God’s goodness or love for us. God allows just the right things to come into our lives at just the right moments to make the end result he desires in each one of us.

This is an area I have struggled in at some points in my life, because I feel overwhelmed by years of facing one big trial and getting through it (with God’s help, of course) only to go through another trial just as equally difficult. Many times I have questioned God’s love for me and that perhaps even his goodness must be for certain people, those who have special favor. I often wonder why some people I know have been through so few difficulties and everything almost seems like a fairy tale in their lives, with just a few little bumps and bruises along the way. And then other people, who equally love the Lord, follow and trust Him face one horrible difficulty after another, as in my case. (I am not referring to bad versus good decisions we make and how some people end up with difficulty brought on themselves).

What I do know is that the Lord promises us that he will work all things out for good and that he is using everything in my life, good and bad, and adding them in one at a time with precision, as a master baker would, in order to produce the end result he wants in me. Right now, it is impossible for me to see that any good is going to come out of all the loss I have had to endure along with all the abuse, rejection and failures that have accumulated in my life, even after tremendous effort and prayer to become successful.

Just like when beating those egg whites, I had no idea whether every step I did would produce the end result I wanted until I got to the end result. The end result in my life will be my last day on earth and only viewed as a whole when I see Jesus face to face. I am afraid of the end result, because I am living in the midst of the difficulties now, but I have hope that all will turn out as He says it will in the end. He is a master baker who can turn any tragic life into a beautiful end result, because only He mixes the ingredients perfectly each and every time without flaw.

My son’s birthday cake turned out amazing, but this does not always happen. Sometimes, I have had to make recipes over a second time before they turned out right. However, God never has to re-make anything to make it turn out “right.” As experienced as I am at baking and cooking, even I make an occasional recipe disaster! I am so glad that even though my life feels like one big recipe for disaster at times that the ingredients in my life are perfectly blended by the Master baker, who gets it right the first time, every time!