Tonight at church the youth group hosted our annual Valentine's Dinner. This is the third year that we've decorated the fellowship hall and served a delicious meal to those who purchased tickets for a fun and romantic evening to raise funds for the youth group. The students always help set up, cook the food, serve the guests, and clean up after.
This year we decided to serve homemade lasagna for dinner. I had never made lasagna from scratch before, so I made a trial batch a few weeks ahead of time, and then tinkered with the recipe a bit until I got it right. That's one of the things I love most about cooking. Every time you make something, no matter how many times you've made it before, you can always do something a little different and make it better (or sometimes worse). I never believe that a recipe is perfect. Now that doesn't mean that I never think a dish I make is delicious or successful. In fact, I do a lot of cooking and I think that most of the things I make are pretty good, and some are certainly delicious. But I never think I'm done with a recipe. I always wonder what it would be like if I did something different. A little less of this or a dash more of that.
I think that's how it is with life sometimes too. Even when something goes well or I think I have something figured out, there's always more to learn. I can't tell you how many times I've gone through some sort of life experience and thought I learned the lesson God was teaching me through that, only to look back years later and realize that there were other lessons from that which I hadn't figured out yet. I know there are also times where I think I've learned my lesson, only to repeat the same mistakes later on, or make new ones. The same is true when I read scripture. There are times when I read and I have a great epiphany, or hear an inspiring sermon and glean a new insight. Every time something like this happens I think I have the meaning of that passage figured out. Inevitably though, some times later, I'll reread that passage or hear it preached on by someone else, and discover something new about it that I had never realized before.
The scriptures are so deep and nuanced that no matter how many times I read a passage, it is fresh and new every time. That's because the scriptures aren't some basic dish served out of a box, they are layered. Just like a plate of lasagna. With each bit of a good lasagna you discover a new flavor or texture from the layered dish. And each batch of lasagna you make will be slightly different from the ones you've had before. That's how it is with God's Word. Every reading is slightly different. Each one brings some new insight to light.
I think that people are similar to this as well. It's often been said that people are like onions, and you have to get to know them by peeling back one layer at a time. While I like this metaphor, I think that comparing people to lasagna is better (and not just because lasagna is delicious!). I think people are more like lasagna because each layer is different. Some have more cheese, others have more sauce, and more have thicker noodles. And each time you spend time with someone and talk to them you learn something new about them. And just like with a lasagna recipe that's never quite finished, we can never know another person completely. With an onion every layer is still just onion, and there is the perception that you can eventually get to the core where you would know everything there is to know about someone.
The great thing about lasagna, like a person, is that the recipe is never finished, and God isn't finished with us until we're united and perfected with Him in heaven. God never stops working on us. He never stops making us better. He never quits perfecting us. Just as we have to be open to try variations in our recipes in order to make a dish better, we need to be open to God's work in and through us in order for Him to make us better.
It is my prayer that I remain open to God's intervention in my life. I pray that I recognize God's movement in my life and invite Him to daily make me better than I as yesterday. If He's not working on me and making me better than I might end up at the back of the shelf getting stale. Father, work in me daily, and help me to see your work in others. Allow me to realize that other people are layered as well, and that I can learn something new and exciting about other people though every interaction I have. Amen.
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