Happy Mother’s Day, and a Soteriology Lesson

My husband and I have extremely low expectations for ALL holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and other such special occasions or life milestones. We’ve found that when we go into a time like that with high expectations or intentions to make it memorable, someone usually ends up having the flu or food poisoning.

His first Father’s Day, both I and our 2 month old son were vomiting profusely. Last year on my husband’s birthday, he ended up preaching a funeral, and my kids ate all the blackberries I picked for him. Valentine’s day this year was spent sipping bone broth, and rehydrating with body armors after a rough bout with a stomach virus that swept through all 6 of us in a matter of 24 hours. and So he decided this year for mother’s day, my husband said in lieu of getting me flowers that are already wilting by the time they’re brought home, or chocolate that would spike my blood sugar and make my feet swell, he’s just committed to not having the flu. I said, “Deal! I still can’t un-smell the last round of sick clean-up I did in February, and I’m considerably more pregnant than I was then.”

So, since we had a “thunderstorm” come through last night and knock over a bunch of my peonies and mock orange, I rescued them and put them in my favorite vase= voila, Mother’s Day bouquet!

And to drive home a point rather passive aggressively after my oldest pretended a stick was a machete and hacked down all my elderberry plants, I decided to bake some elderflower cupcakes with elderberry frosting, using last year’s harvest. The ultimate point of the exercise being 3 fold: 1) if you kill all my elderberry plants, these cupcakes can’t and won’t happen again. 2) I want to scream at you, because what you did was stealing resources from our family, killing plants, and destroying my hard work of propagation. But instead, I’m showing grace and forgiveness by making you dessert. Also…I’m pregnancy-craving cupcakes. 3) I unintentionally taught a lesson in soteriology (study of salvation).

In waiting for the cupcakes to cool, the kids were impatiently eyeballing them, wanting to eat them and the frosting separately, complaining about not getting one yet, constantly asking how much longer. And Instead of snap and shout at them, (the Holy Spirit has absolutely answered my prayers to be at work in me today) I calmly explained,

“These cupcakes are kind of like our salvation in Jesus. We have them here. They aren’t merely muffins, they’re much sweeter and softer- they’re different on the inside; they’re cupcakes. But, they haven’t been fully glorified yet. They’re too hot to eat, and they don’t have their pretty, tasty frosting yet. These cupcakes are already, but not yet. In the same way, when we confess our sins, repent, and believe in Jesus to save us, He does! He justifies us fully and completely based on the work He has already accomplished by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. However, we are not yet fully glorified. We still struggle against sin and temptations, and we are awaiting our glorified bodies that will never see decay; our salvation is already, but not yet. But one day, Jesus will come back. Whether we meet Him in death, or He returns to earth during our lifetime to restore heaven and earth, we will eventually be glorified with Him, and “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:19-20) One day- perhaps today- these cupcakes will cool down enough for mama to frost them. They will receive a lovely lavender colored, elderberry flavored buttercream that will thrill and delight your little taste buds. We look forward to that ultimate state, just like we look forward to being perfected and glorified in Christ at the Day of His coming.”

And I thought, that was pretty good, I’m going to blog that so I don’t forget it. Happy Mother’s Day!