Have you started your Christmas baking?  I spent yesterday morning in the kitchen baking away.  It’s therapeutic for me to create in the kitchen.  Everyone in the family has a favorite baked goody they look for around Christmas, so it takes a couple of days to get it all done.   I had Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song playing softly in the background and the kitchen was growing warm from the oven working overtime. As they say where I grew up,

“I was in hog heaven.”

When it came time to make my snowmen on a stick, I fired up the stove top and began melting the chocolate for dipping. As I watched the morsels lose their shape and melt away I couldn’t help but think we all feel like those chips every now and then.  The heat of life feels like more than we can handle and we can’t help but be impacted by it.

How do you respond when that happens?  Do you isolate yourself and pray it will just go away? Do you run to a friend or family member expecting them to make everything alright? Or do you run to the Lord in prayer?  Honestly, I’ve done all of the above, but the only one that seems to bring about any change in my situation is the Lord.

In John 16:33 Jesus tells us we’ll have trouble in this world.  Not the message you want to hear, right?  But He goes on to say He has overcome the world.  He is an overcomer.  He knows how to do it and He can lead us to overcome our obstacles in life too, if we’ll trust Him.  Not only that, but Paul tells us in Romans 8:28,

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Chocolate chips are good on their own, but there’s nothing quite like a hot chocolate chip cookie or a marshmallow snowman dipped in chocolate.  In order to make those delectable creations, you have to apply heat and allow the chips to break down.  The Lord knows the ultimate version of you and He often allows some heat to factor into your life to get you there.   He doesn’t let it to happen because He doesn’t love you; He allows it to happen because He does love you [John 3:16]. He is for you. God can take our trials, messes and mistakes and create something beautiful out of them.  Will you trust your life to the Master Baker?  Everything He creates is a masterpiece.