I enjoy baking. I sometimes use recipes that are already made up, like cake mix or cookie mix that only require that I add ingredients like eggs, water and oil. Whenever I bake, I have a mental image of what my finished product should look like, and more importantly (to me anyway), what it should taste like.
I am sure you have experienced a finished product that does not quite look like the picture on the box. I have decided that the pictures on the box were not made from the actual ingredients in the box because I have followed the directions without fail, and my cake still doesn’t look like the picture on the box.
I notice on television and print ads that hamburgers, tacos, burritos and other restaurant food look nothing like what they put on your plate unless…a chef has prepared it. The advertised picture may not even be real food! But when a chef has prepared it, it looks and tastes like the picture on the box!
When I go to a fast food place, I don’t even bother to question why my food looks nothing like the picture in the menu. I know the cook is not a chef, and it takes a chef to make it look and taste like the picture. My point is this; God is the Chef, we are merely cooks, and when He prepares you, you will look like the picture on the box.
God tells us in His word how we should appear to the world; A city on a hill, a light and an example, full of good works, a people blessed and to be envied. That is the picture on the box. He also lists the ingredients and gives us directions to follow, but we don’t let Him put everything in place at the right time, and we turn out looking (and tasting) different than the picture on the box.
Some of us are really good at looking good. But we don’t taste right, and we make people sick. Others don’t care how they look and have forgotten that a good meal should appeal to all the senses.
You can tell me a roach tastes like chocolate, but as long as it looks like a roach… I will do without chocolate! So it is with our relationship with God, if it doesn’t look good, others may never “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
A chef understands that making an appealing meal is not just mixing ingredients together. They understand the importance of presentation, which is why you usually don’t eat filet mignon off of paper plates. And when the presentation is right, the entire experience is enhanced, and you hear people say, “My compliments to the chef.”
God understands how to present you in the most appealing ways. He knows how and when you are ready to be put on display. Be patient. Let Him prepare you and you will see that He will get the glory for your life and your lifestyle.
You can be His picture on the box, prepared by the Master Chef, desired by the world and tasting like Christ. You will be genuine and others will learn that they too can be God’s advertisement, His picture on the box, if they will stop cooking and let God be the Chef.
Everyday God... 