Friday, December 10, 2010

The Recipe

Our guests at Roseland frequently compliment us on our breakfast.  We serve a proprietary fresh fruit cup, unique juice, and heavenly scrambled eggs among other menus.  Our guests love it.
“It’s perfect,” they say. 
Sometimes our guests also ask, “What do you do that makes your breakfast so good?  What is your recipe?  What special ingredients do you use to make it so delicious?”

Clearly, our guests can perceive the love we pour into our work.  They can see the attention we pay to presentation, and they can taste the care we take during preparation.  The love shines through the end result.
“It’s the love we pour into it,” we respond. 

But our guests have difficulty accepting that’s all there is to it, so they often probe further, “What’s your secret?  Are you using special farm fresh eggs?”
“We use regular eggs from the store, mix it with milk, whip it, and then cook it in the pan.  We add no seasonings,” we reply.
“That’s all?” they ask in amazement.
“Yes, that plus a lot of attention to detail and love,” we reiterate.

Learning the simplicity of our recipe actually enhances their appreciation of the breakfast; it doesn’t diminish it.  Knowing how carefully we prepare the food emphasizes to them how important they are in our lives.  In short, it shows how much we care, appreciate, and love them.

It is the same with God and His creation.  He created everything in this Universe with great care for our pleasure.  He made everything beautiful and perfect before we ruined it.  But we can still see the attention, love, and care He poured into it for our benefit.  Isn’t it incredible that the Creator of this Universe would be so concerned with our needs?  Isn’t it overwhelming how important we are to Him?

Many have difficulty accepting that God did what He did because they can’t understand how He accomplished it.  But just as it is unnecessary for Roseland guests’ enjoyment of the breakfast to know our recipes, it is unnecessary for us to know how God made the Universe.  We all can enjoy a Roseland breakfast or marvel at God’s superlative creation without knowing the details of its preparation. 

Sometimes we are fortunate and do learn the recipe.  It seems so simple as to be impossible.  So we ask, “Is that all?  That’s it?” 

If our guests are impressed by the simple elegance of Roseland’s recipes, how much more should we be awed at the simple elegance of God’s creative genius when we do get glimpses of how He created the Universe!  In both cases knowing the recipe only enhances the experience rather than detracts from it. 

You see what’s important is WHAT God did, not HOW He did it.  And this is what He did and is continuing to do:
1.    He created a perfect world for us
2.    He gave us free will to enjoy that world with Him and to love Him
3.    He made us managers of his perfect Creation so we, too, could be creators like Him
4.    When we messed up and totally destroyed His perfect creation, He didn’t just erase everything and start all over again, but He chose to fix it and pay a price we cannot comprehend
5.    Though it may be difficult to perceive at times, He is constantly at work in each of our lives to perfect us so we can participate in his perfect Creation once it’s been restored to perfection.

What an amazing, awesome God worthy of all our praise!  So let us praise God and thank Him for His incredible skill, love, and attention to detail.  Let us accept Him and His Creation for what it is, even if we don’t know the recipe.   And let us never forget how important we are to Him!  Merry Christmas to all and may the peace of the Lord be with you.

And please do come to enjoy our delicious Roseland breakfasts…

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