Tuesday, April 6, 2010

What Does Butter Have To Do With Easter?


Last weekend was Easter, and as we were preparing for the Easter celebration, I made my favorite cake:  Strawberry (!!! I have to put exclamation points because I love it so much!).  I haven't spent much time baking over the years partly because it's not my favorite thing to do, partly because we just don't need the sweets around the house. 

The consequence of this is that I'm not very good at making icing. So I followed the directions that were given in the cookbook, but the icing just wouldn't harden enough to actually stay on the cake!  Ugh...I almost gave up, but my sweet mother-in-law who was visiting, went over the steps with me to find out what I'd done, and I learned two very important things. 
And don't laugh at me.
ok you can laugh.
1.  You have to use REAL butter in icing.
2.  You don't melt the butter before you mix the icing.

See...I just didn't know.  The cookbook didn't tell me these things, assuming that I knew.  Since then I 've learned that those 2 things are pretty basic-common knowledge-everyone knows, you silly facts about making icing.

But I just didn't know.
I just didn't know the basics.

So what does butter have to do with Easter?  Think about the people who only come to church on Easter and Christmas.  Do they know the basics?  We see them two times a year.  They may come to make grandma happy or because that's been their family tradition.  But as strange as it may seem, we can be assured that among these people, some of them are just like me...they just don't know the basics.

That Jesus is the Son of God.
That He was the promise foretold in the scriptures.
That He died for each one of us.  For our sins, and the sins of all generations to come.
That we can live with him someday.
And it's so easy...believe that He is the Son of God, tell him we're sorry for our sins, and ask Him to come into our heart.

I'm glad that I had this experience with butter this Easter.  Because it helps me to remember that just like me there are those who may walk into my church doors on Easter or Christmas, or maybe a Sunday in May, or maybe a MOPS meeting on Fridays, or maybe at the ballpark and not even at the church...that don't know the basics.  So I have to be ready to share what I know...it's good news this story of Jesus!  Because of Jesus my life is different, my communion with God is personal and my eternity is secure.

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice for me.

And in case you're wondering...I can make a great icing now!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great analogy! Your cake sounds delicious in spite of the icing!