Crime and Punishment...and Cookies

I spent a couple of hours on Saturday making my world famous chocolate chip cookies. Okay, maybe not world famous but they are pretty good. Actually, there is no big secret to how I make them. Just add ½ cup more of flour than It calls for, an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract, and extra chocolate chips. And oh yeah, don’t bake them for too long, only about 10 minutes max, Probably not the coolest thing for a guy to be putting a recipe on a men’s blog but oh well…I digress…

The reason I was making the cookies is for a friend of ours that found out about a prison ministry that takes cookies to prisoners down in Florence. Seemed like a cool thing to do and a chance that the Gospel be shared through a simple act of kindness. I’m embarrassed to say though that as I was making the cookies, I started thinking about what kind of crime did the person commit that was going to be eating these cookies? Whose life did they ruin? Who did they cause physical and emotional pain? Were there children involved? Basically, it was really negative thinking that I should not have been doing.

I mentioned what I was thinking to my wife and she wisely said, “Kind of like the crimes we have committed against God?” Ouch. She was absolutely right. How many times have I committed a crime against God and how many times has He forgiven me? I can’t even count the times. I’ve taken the “3 Strike” rule to new levels with God. Here I am offering a few cookies to a criminal when God has given eternal salvation and happiness to a criminal who is just as guilty. I’m blessed to have a wife that reminds me to get some perspective on these kinds of things. What an amazing God we serve that forgives our crimes again and again and on top of that, rewards us beyond what we can imagine.

Peace,
Monte