To make the muffins, I recognised that I was using the benefit from quite a few people who are dear to me… the friends’ rhubarb gift was mixed with a coconut/almond flour mix that was a suggestion from another friend some years ago (an easy gluten-free adaptation), the cream cheese had been on sale (a piece of information another friend had shared), and the trick of simplifying how to form said stuffed muffin came from a colleague years ago (when we were baking with pumpkin abundance). Even the baking itself touched with love, as I was in a friend’s kitchen using her pans and oven for the venture.
The end result was fabulous! They were moist, tangy, sweet – a perfect muffin – so good, in fact, that they were eaten a little more quickly than originally intended!
I am quite certain that I could have made these muffins without the gifts and adaptations from my dear ones, but the culmination of all of their offerings made for a spectacular treat. My muffins were all the better because of it. And, I had the psychological benefit of recalling all these dear ones, and dwelling in the gratitude of having them in my life.
As I was in that space of gratitude, I reflected that these muffins – with the influence of many – are analogous to our Christian life. We are in it together, we all have something to offer, we all have something to receive from others, we don’t know the scope or scale of how or when our offerings will be useful to the world.
Yet we do know that God has given us all ample gifts, and an abundance of opportunities to share them. We trust that as we come together in sharing of our faith, we are celebrating that the contributions of all are important and significant. And from this, we might find joy in the ‘embarrassment of riches’ of a living faith. For just as those muffins were a delightful gathering of love among the ingredients, so too is every aspect of our lives a culmination of those with whom we share the great gift of love.
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