Breakfast Muffins

Ah!  The breakfast theme continues… and today my mind drifted off into the thoughts of fresh, warm muffins right out of the oven!  A couple of years ago, I rediscovered the joy of baking delicious homemade muffins as a special treat in the morning.  At the time our little lemon bush was producing an abundance of fruit and as I considered what to do with the bountiful harvest, I came up with the idea of throwing together some lemon muffins.

So with that plan, I went on the internet, found a simple recipe and began in my new role as the happy little baker!  The first batch wasn’t as flavorful as I had hoped for so, as my Mom would say, I doctored it up with a lot more fresh squeezed lemon juice and grated lemon peel zest, along with the corresponding additions of extra sugar and a sweet glazed topping.  And then Walla… they were magnificent! 

Those lemon muffins soon became a staple at our kitchen table.  One morning though, as I rummaged through the fridge looking for the milk and eggs in order to bake a fresh batch, I realized that I was out of eggs.  So I made a quick decision to add some mayonnaise, thinking that since eggs are a major part of its mixture that it should be a good substitution… right?  Well, as you can imagine, the muffins were just not the same that day!  The consistency of the muffins was all wrong, they were on the heavy side and tended to fall apart in your hand.

The memory of that substitution popped into my mind this morning as I reviewed I Corinthians 13:13.  The Phillips New Testament in Modern English tells us that, “These three things remain, faith, hope and love.  But the best one of these is love.”  The first thought that came to me was that love is the key ingredient that makes the other two ingredients work to their fullest extent.  Galatians 5:6 tells us that faith works by love and I Thessalonians 5:24 implies that our love for God gives us the ability to have hope in His faithfulness to bring about the things He has promised us in His Word.

Love is like the egg in my lemon muffins!  Without the eggs the muffin recipe was not right and left an unsatisfying taste in your mouth.  The qualities of God’s love also reminded me of a time many years ago when I was in early elementary school and asked my Mom if I could bake a cake.  Everything went well until we took the cake out of the oven and noticed that it was about one inch tall!  Well, you guessed it!  In my excitement I forgot to add the three eggs called for in the recipe.  My Mom in her grace still encouraged me to go ahead and frost the cake.  Later that afternoon we even served the cake to my grandparents who had come over for a visit.  Oh, the things that grandparents will do for their grandkids!

Each slice of cake was not only very thin, but also had a quarter of an inch layer at the very bottom that was compressed and like rubber!  But that didn’t stop my grandfather from smiling as he choked down the snack.  Later as they were leaving, he leaned over to me and complemented me on my baking skills and then chuckled and with a wink whispered, “Next time just remember the eggs!”

I think that my grandpa’s encouragement would be a good thing for all of us to remember as we step out the door each day.  But instead of eggs, think on God’s love.  With everything we say or do throughout the day, just remember the main ingredient that makes everything else work better… the love of God!

I know that I have quoted this before, but it is so good that I feel compelled to say it again.  In his commentary on the love chapter in I Corinthians thirteen, William Barclay stated that “Faith without is love is cold and hope without love is grim.”  I have experienced this truth every day for the last four years whenever my wife and I are out and about and look into the eyes of the relatives, neighbors, and strangers that we encounter.  Without the intimate and ever increasing experiential knowledge of His love for us, it is hard to have a hope that is expectant and faith that can move mountains.

Have a good day today.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting today?”