I
have an unhealthy attraction to cookies. When I am working out at the gym, I
think about cookies. While helping the kids with homework, I think about
cookies. I pray about cookies and thank
God for their existence. When other desserts vie for my attention, I cannot
help but think about cookies.
Not
just any cookies will satisfy my lust. I prefer large peanut butter cookies
nestled with peanut butter cups and peanuts. My other favorite is chocolate
chip with walnuts, the big kind, that costs as much as a small, imported,
puppy. My favorite comes from a restaurant near my house named Pacific Whey. After
6:00 p.m. all cookies are half price, but I run the risk of there being no chocolate
chip with walnuts cookies left. I could settle for the chocolate chip espresso
cookie or chocolate brownie but only when required, and even then, I would have
to return the following day and pay full price for my true love.
My
last cookie purchase took me to new levels of excitement. Since I’m a huge fan of
getting things for free, I was delighted when I dipped my hand into the bag of
cookies I purchased and discovered three cookies instead of the two I purchased.
When I mentioned the mistake to the cashier she said, “Oh, the last cookie was
broken so I gave it to you since we throw those away. People don’t buy the
broken ones.”
Although
I am not as attracted to broken cookies, as I am to perfectly rounded, robust,
fully formed, cookies, I was thankful to cashier Veronica.
While
sipping hot coffee and savoring my stack of cookies, I began to ponder the
metaphor surrounding unwanted, broken cookies. While humanity isn’t naturally
attracted human “broken cookies” Jesus embraced them. The lepers who were
subjected to a section of town, disgraced for their uncleanliness were loved
and fully accepted by Jesus. He stopped what He was doing to heal a lame man
dropped from a rooftop, laid before His feet. A prostitute He met at a well
received a life changing message from Jesus when He willingly approached
her. A blind man at the edge of a pool littered with
mangled and dysfunctional bodies waiting for a human touch were a
magnet for Jesus. Jesus not only loved “broken cookies” He looked for them, and
still does.
Not
one of us is perfect. We are all broken cookies shaped by our upbringing, the decisions
we make, unwarranted opinions of others, and our past, but we are in no way
identified by them, for we are loved fully and unconditionally by our Jesus. He
purchased us, broken and unwanted, with His sacrifice at the Cross. Jesus is
attracted to “broken cookies.”
Every now again I fantasize about ice cream
and was once caught cheating with chocolate chip ice cream, a distant cousin to
the cookie. Forgiveness was given but trust is still an issue we are working
out together, cookie and me. I haven’t let cookie know, but a sassy little croissant,
flakey on the outside and stuffed with vanilla cream and sliced strawberries
has been texting me. The temptation is real.
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