Cooking Classes

Tonight I am going to Mary’s apartment with a basket full of ingredients and a homemade cookbook that I put together this morning. Mary is single, adorable, a hard worker and has never learned how to cook a full meal. But now things have changed and she has a love interest and a reason to learn the skill necessary to run a home and family. So tonight we are beginning with a simple menu and simple ingredients and simple techniques. I have thought a good deal about the skill needed to put together a meal. 

I have done it every night for forty-five years. I know how to use electric mixers, food processors, electric knives, waffle irons, microwave ovens, toasters and other dangerous pieces of equipment. I have a pantry that I keep well stocked for emergencies or occasional unexpected guests. I can whip up a meal in a matter of minutes, turn out pound cakes and perfect pie crusts and roasts and soups and salads. I am indeed queen of the kitchen.

But it hasn’t always been that way. When I was first married, I had to begin almost at the beginning. Well not really quite at the beginning because my mother was a fabulous cook and taught me a thing or two. For those girls who were not so lucky, home economics classes showed young women how to bake, cook, shop, clean and sew. But those days are long gone, many mothers work full time and have never learned to cook themselves and so… we have the young women who must begin at the beginning.

“This is a tablespoon. This is a cup measurer. This is how you whip cream and beat eggs.” It is elementary to be sure but it is paramount if anyone is going to ever learn their way around a kitchen.

So why is this skill so important? Surely first and foremost everyone has to eat. But there is more. The table is a sacred place. Yes your heard me right…it is a sacred place. It is where we sit with those we love, sample tastes that are pleasurable and leisurely enjoy the company and the food put before us. And, though many will disagree with me, it is a place where God meets with us if we let Him. I enjoy cooking because I love the people in my home and those times around the table are simply heavenly.

So tonight we will begin at the beginning because Mary has a goal. She wants to feed those she loves and experience those times of togetherness. It will take time and effort but in the end she will be the queen of her kitchen and it will all be worth it.

All skills have to have a starting point. I love to read but first I had to take the time (painstakingly) to learn letters, nouns, verbs, sentences and paragraphs. Then I could enjoy reading. And so it is also with spiritual growth. How often I hear someone say “I just wish I knew the Bible better.” “I just wish I knew more about God and had a deeper relationship.” I wish I understood God’s ways better.” It starts with the willingness to take the time to start in the beginning. “Here is a Bible. Now turn to page one…”

It is not that we don’t have enough helps, programs, classes, Bible versions, etc., etc. We are totally inundated with everything anyone could want. We have enough. But do we really want spiritual maturity enough to make the time and take the steps necessary?

Tonight Mary will take her first step. In a year she will have all the simple steps down and will have moved into the more complicated. And with each step she will have ever developing skills to delight herself with the creativity and joy cooking offers, but also nourish and gift the people God brings in her path.

And so it is with our own growth in Christ. For those who begin the journey through God’s Word as a serious student, every step will bring them closer to the God of the universe, more confident in His ways, greater wisdom and life skills, peace, joy, patience, etc., and have greater love and joy in the people around them. It starts with one step. Here is the Bible, now turn to page one…

1 Peter 2:2

As new born babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.