One day a week or so ago, I decided to make Monster Cookies. Sometimes the cookies are 'monster' sized. Mine were not going to be. But the recipe is definitely a 'monster':  a dozen eggs, eighteen cups of oatmeal. When I began, I used a large mixing bowl to stir together the eggs and sugars. Then came the oatmeal. Now I was using a 'tub', as I had no bowls big enough for the batter.

The oatmeal I had purchased was a large, tall cylinder. When I checked the quantity, it was fifteen cups. Not the eighteen I needed. I hadn't checked the size, as it was large. Now I am the middle of my baking. Do I try to cheat three cups? Or drive to town to buy more oatmeal?

Three cups short is a lot. I decided I'd better make the trek to town. Cookies might not turn out right otherwise.

As I drove, I started to think about cookies and our lives. Recipes only turn out right when you follow the ingredients and directions of someone who has made them before. Same thing with our lives. God has given us the Bible. Not as a list of rules and regulations to make us miserable or uncomfortable. But as a recipe to help our lives and relationships with Him, and with others, turn out like He knows will make us the 'best possible us'.

God, thank You that You didn't just make us and set us out to live life without a 'cookbook' for living the most successful lives possible. You know, and knew, we were going to need help. Your help! Thanks for setting our feet on higher ground; both in this life and the one you have planned which is coming. And thank You for Jesus who showed us the way. Amen.