PRAISE GOD FOR BROKEN COOKIES

Vivian baked some wonderful cookies a few days ago. I am not sure that “wonderful” is a way to describe something you eat, but they are wonderful, full of good stuff like raisins and oatmeal, thin and tasty. It happened that a few stuck to the baking sheet, and therefore broke while being moved from sheet to rack.

I asked if I could eat a couple. She said yes, but eat the broken ones. Then added, you can have as many of those as you want.

I thought, praise God for broken cookies.

The truth is they may not win any prize at the fair, but those broken cookies taste just as good as the “perfect” ones.

There are these words in the Old Testament that Christians believe describe Jesus: “. . . he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2)

But on the inside . . . as Psalm 34 sings, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Ps. 34:8)

What is so appealing to me about Jesus is not the miracles and the healings. What attracts me to him is his humanity, his compassion, his kindness, his desire to lift others up and to show them forgiveness.

The miracles and the healing are like that “perfect” cookie that is brought to the state fair and gets the purple ribbon. But the compassion and the kindness is like the broken cookie. For such can be found in any of us. We who know we are broken, who fail often and who get so afraid at times, we too can truly be like Christ in this world, in our compassion and our kindness, in our desire to lift others up and in our courage to forgive.

When someone would come to me and ask for help because he or she had a problem with alcohol, I would ask if I could contact a friend who belonged to AA, someone who understood what it is like to “have a problem with alcohol.” One broken child of God helping another broken child of God. Or as D. T. Niles said: “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found a loaf of bread.”

Blessed Christmas, dear reader, blessed Christmas. As you celebrate the birth of Jesus, as you gather with family and friends, as you exchange gifts and sing the old carols, please remember that for some this is a season of tears. A loved one is not present this Christmas. There is not enough money to buy presents this Christmas. He or she will sit at table alone this Christmas.

You and I will not fix it. But we can help. We can figure it out and we can do something . . . a hug, a word, an unexpected gift, some money, your presence.

Praise God for broken cookies. Praise God for one broken child of God helping another broken child of God.

Gary