But, It Doesn’t Look Good

This looks good…it’s also plastic.

I absolutely love to cook. I have more recipes than time, but when I finally get some free time and a few ingredients, you can find me in the kitchen. Anyone else who cooks knows that quite often, the finished product looks a bit more “home-made” than the restaurant-quality recipe picture. This was the case when I first attempted a brand new dessert. The pictured pie appeared an amazing golden color, but my finished product was more of a muddy brown. Still, after all of the hard work, I had to give it a taste. To my surprise, it was one of THE best desserts I’ve made, yet!

I thought of how this relates to our walk with God. Christianity, at the outset, does not seem very appealing. As followers of God, we are told such things as: rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3), count it all joy when we meet trials (James 1:2), in this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33), blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake (Matthew 5:10). Just looking at the outside, without ever experiencing it, being a Christian doesn’t look so good. However, I believe there is an excellent reason for this.

After years of trying to make picture-perfect recipes, I learned that many of the items pictured in magazines are nothing more than plastic molds, painted with vibrant colors, and polished to a high-gloss finish. The reason for this is that food is not very photogenic; meaning, it may look good to the naked eye, but not on camera. Meanwhile, my dessert, with the home-made look, was not only edible, it was delicious. This reminds me of the age-old adage, “All that glitters is not gold,” and I would submit that the opposite is also true: gold does not always glitter. I think God wants us to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). He knows that we can be easily swayed by things that look good, but are no more filling or nourishing than polished plastic. My dessert did not have to look as good as the picture, but it tasted even better than I’d hoped. Likewise, Christianity doesn’t have to LOOK good because we serve a God who IS good (James 1:17; Psalm 107:1; Numbers 1:7; Psalm 145:9; Psalm 119:68; Psalm 31:19; Luke 18:19; Lamentations 3:25; Jeremiah 33:11).