There are no kids left at home to eat the ugly cupcakes or the broken cookies, so here I sit with a dozen chocolate cupcakes that got stuck to the pan. There's a meal at church tomorrow, and presentation matters, so I frosted and sprinkled the nice ones and packaged them up for the table. Then, I started contemplating the crooked and mangled leftovers. What have I taught my kids by leaving the "less than desirable" behind all of these years? What am I saying to my neighbors? Nothing good.
We like to put on our Sunday faces. We wear clean clothes, and make our best recipes, and nod and smile and paint rosy pictures of our lives for everyone to see. That's not what the world needs, they need us to be real. Church is meant for the crooked and mangled, the less desirable and the ugly.
In light of that, I have used extra buttercream to paste these cakes back together, and I squashed them together on a plate to keep them from falling apart. They will be right up front on the dessert table with everything else. When you see them, let them be a reminder that Jesus wants you to come to church in pieces. The church is the place where all of us can squash close enough together in the pan that we don't fall down.
This deep lesson is brought to you by Buttercream & Sprinkles Ministries (I made that up, don't try to Google the address lol)
"There's hope for the hopeless
And all those who've strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace
There's rest for the weary
Rest that endures
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can't cure
So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face
Oh wanderer come home
You're not too far
Lay down your hurt lay down your heart
Come as you are
Come as you are"--Come As You Are (Crowder): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjgioXrnEME
