Through The Oven Window

 

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nce again, I had been pushing the outside of the culinary envelope, testing my baking skills in an effort to reproduce my grandmother’s cream cheese pound cake recipe.  To date there had been two attempts and let’s just say that more time and effort was needed to perfect my skills.  No matter how much I tried, the cakes just never tasted like grandma’s used to and I guessed they never would. 

 

On two consecutive weekends, I attempted to bake the cake.  The first attempt, by any standard, way off the mark!  I baked the cake for too long at a temperature that was too high, and the result was a cake that was too wrong!!  In any event, I determined not to be outdone and so I cranked up the mixer, measured all the necessary ingredients and turned my kitchen once again into an experimental laboratory. 

 

The second time, everything went along much better.  I mixed the batter, greased the pan, and preheated the oven all in record time.  Finally, the moment came to transfer the batter from the mixing bowl into the cake pan.  I emptied all of the batter, making sure all of the mixture made it into the Bundt pan.  I distributed the batter evenly and placed the cake pan into the oven to bake until the batter transformed into a delectable dessert. 

 

Like a lone sentinel standing guard, I hunkered down in front of the oven to keep a watchful eye on my cake.  The light inside the oven provided enough light so I could watch the cake bake.  Over the course of an hour, I watched as this stiff liquid batter transformed into a wonderful and delicious cake.  I had no doubt it would turn out with a golden crust and a smooth texture.  I had followed the recipe and had baked the cake at the appropriate temperature for the allotted time.  When I pulled it out of the oven, it was just as I expected it to be.  But watching it through the oven window gave me a great thrill, watching my creation become something wonderful that I could share with others. 

 

As I sat there waiting and watching, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the words of Psalm 139, David’s famous Psalm about always being in God’s presence and being fearfully and wonderfully made in His image.  In Psalm 139:15-18, David pens some of the most beautiful and reassuring words in the whole of the Scriptures: “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”  

 

In these brief verses, David has captured the perspective of the cake in the oven.  Now I am not making light of this passage and I am definitely not suggesting Psalm 139 is a recipe.  However, the analogy I believe is applicable.   

 

All of us are made by hand, just like that cake.  All the necessary ingredients have been placed in our lives including things we don’t understand or want.  Along with all the joy, laughter, and material blessings God gives us, He also puts some pain, some suffering, and some difficulty into the mix.  These are there to make us rely solely on Him and to understand that we are nothing without Him. 

 

Then when the mixture is well beaten and thoroughly stirred, God pours us into a mold and assigns us to constant heat for a period of time. In baking, heat, and a lot of it, is necessary to turn liquid batter into a cake.  How much more important are we go God?  How much heat do you think it takes to turn change us into something God can and wants to share with others?  It takes an exact amount of heat for a specific period of time.  And all the while, God looks at us through the oven window.  David reminds us of this fact in Psalm 139 when he states that our substance was never hidden from God, that He saw us even before we were formed.  The cake batter doesn’t look like much to the average person, but to the one baking the cake, the batter is the cake in a different form, all that is needed is heat and time. 

Wherever you are in your walk with God today, I pray you will be patient.  He may have turned up the heat and He may have left you there for what seems like an eternity but please remember this. He is always watching you, looking at you through the oven window, knowing exactly how much heat and how much time are necessary to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ, which is His ultimate goal for you.  Just be patient, let the heat do its work, and be thankful that our Heavenly Father is watching you at all times through the oven window.  When you are done, He will turn you out of the mold and use you for His glory as you touch the lives of others with the love and good news of Jesus Christ.