If you were going to make a Christmas cookie, you would need to be sure to have just the right ingredients. We’re not talking about a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie or even peanut butter blossoms, gingerbread men, and snickerdoodles. I love all of those. My favorite though are sugar cookies with frosting on top that crumbles with each bite you take. Whether it’s a cookie shaped like a Christmas tree, a candy cane, a snowflake, a star, or a snowman, I love them all.
The Shop
In the late 80’s and early 90’s, my dad owned his own auto-repair shop. The highlight of the year was the epic spread he put out at Christmas time for his customers. My Uncle made the best hot roast beef, and my Grandma Manney made small tea sandwiches. There was a holiday cheese-ball, and a local bakery provided the center piece—a tray of assorted sugar cookies. I was in holiday heaven as a kid.
The best sugar cookies are often the easiest ones to make. Sugar cookie recipes abound online. You can find a recipe with a simple Google search online. You’ll be inundated with close to 500,000,000 articles in .65 seconds of searching “sugar cookie recipe.” Here’s one to try:
Christmas Cookie Recipe from Sugar Spun Run
You’ll need:
1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
And, an assortment of Christmas cookie cutters.
Mix that all together and voila you have the next best thing to sliced bread. Just give me a container of Betty Crocker frosting, and I’ll see you next Christmas. (For baking instructions search online “Sugar Spun Run- Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe”)
Ingredients to Save the World
If you were going to save the world, what ingredients would you need? A king? An army? An angel? What about a teenage girl and a blue-collar carpenter? Throw in a star, a stable, some shepherds, a few wise men, oh, and some angels…lots and lots of angels, and now you have the makings of a story worth telling down through the ages. How does this sound for the start of that recipe?
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
Galatians 4:4-5
One Solitary Life
To fully understand the power of Emmanuel sent to save us. Consider the powerful words of James Allen Francis poem “One Solitary Life”.
He was born in an obscure village,
The child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village,
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty.
Then for three years
He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn’t go to college.
He never visited a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
From the place where he was born.
He did none of the things
One usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty-three
When the tide of public opinion turned against him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies.
And went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross
Between two thieves.
While he was dying,
His executioners gambled for his clothing,
The only property he had on Earth.
When he was dead,
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone,
And today he is the central figure
Of the human race,
And the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched,
All the navies that ever sailed,
All the parliament that ever sat,
All the kings that ever reigned,
Put together have not affected
The life of man on Earth
As much as that
One Solitary Life.
God’s Working
It may be hard to imagine, but this one solitary life was raised by a teenage mom and a step-dad. Sometimes we underestimate the power of what God did in bringing together the lives of each of those characters involved in the Christmas story.
The circumstances, experiences, and people God is using in your life are all the necessary ingredients to bring about his purpose in our lives. God is working for His glory and your good.
That same Jesus is still with us today. He promised He would never leave us or forsake us. He’s still living out Emmanuel today. How does that give you renewed hope this Christmas season?
*This has been an excerpt from Recapture Christmas: Unwrap the Mystery and Wonder of the Manger (a 30-Day Devotional). If you enjoyed it, check out the devotional on Amazon.
More Encouragement
For more encouragement, check out my post God’s Gifts at Christmas.