Lessons From the Kitchen

I think God has set up the world so that the ordinary and natural things around us teach us too.
This week I have been making gingerbread with my boys. This batch was about using the same cutter because we needed them to be the same.

 And yet - same cutter, same mixture, same person.... each one slightly different and isn't that how it should be?
I think it's easy to look at ourselves (our cookie if you will) and see the imperfections - the slightly too large head, the cracks, the too prominent or too soft features, a bit broken off here, a leg that is a little longer than the other.... instead of celebrating this we imagine that every other cookie in the batch is somehow perfect, without defect, cooked through perfectly.

I actually think what we are invited to is an abundant and warm 'embrace of our self'. Recognising that the imperfections we see are part of what make us who we are. Sure, we walk with a limp, our bodies are too soft or too angular but we are in fact all of the same mixture.
Each one of us lovingly crafted and pleasing to the Creator's eye who hasn't decided to have a world of uniformed, sameness - a Creator who revels in the differentness of the same. 

Same ingredients - dust and spirit

Different talents

Different brokenness

All delicious

As the boys' new favourite t-shirts say, "Same, Same...but Different"