Cooking lessons

I love when the seasons change...leaves turning colors, crisp fall breezes, fires flaming in the fireplace...and, best of all, pumpkin pie. My family loves pumpkin pie. So the first cool week in September, my mom and I made a double recipe of pumpkin pie. She rolled out crusts on one end of the kitchen while I mixed the filling on the other. It brought back memories of when we made the pies last September, and I carelessly flipped open the can of pureed pumpkin. My mom ended up finishing that pie since I promptly wrapped my finger in lots of band-aids. It wasn’t a big cut, but it was deep–deep enough for me to see a scar on my knuckle when I opened the can this year.

Ever since that pie last year, I have been very careful to follow my mom’s instructions when I’m cooking. Instead of opening and dumping cans as if I was competing in the international Rubik’s cube championship, I very carefully pry the lid open. That scar is enough to remind me not to be careless with sharp edges. I used to think my mom’s warnings were a little too cautious...after all, you can slide a finger over the sharp edge of a can without getting cut, so why waste time opening a can so slowly? But once I actually felt the consequences of being careless, I understood the importance of slowly working with sharp objects.

Isn’t it funny how we are so prone to thinking that we’re the ultimate authority on everything? Like Liesel said in Sound of Music: "I’m sixteen years old and I don’t need a governess!" Even respectful Christian teenagers can unintentionally get that attitude. It’s not that we’re trying to be disobedient, but we just assume we know more than our moms and dads do. And, what’s worse, we sometimes act–not that we would ever say this–like we know more than God does. No, we’re not out murdering and stealing in our free time, but what about getting angry at siblings or thinking we inherently deserve the biggest slice of pie? Our anger is not righteous indignation, and if you think you deserve anything–! We just don’t get it. When God gives us commandments, it’s for our own good! He doesn’t make up rules for the sake of rules; God gave us commandments that our for our good and His glory. But then, when we act like we’re smarter than He is, God sends us a reminder that He is infinitely wiser than our little finite minds. He sends us pain as the consequences of our foolishness. Now we remember that He knows better. As C. S. Lewis said once said in The Problem of Pain, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

If we would only listen to those whispers in the pleasant times, we could avoid so much pain! But God is sovereign, and He plans our pains to make us grow.

Revelation 3:19–As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.