The Butter Test

My 22 month old daughter is a total carbo-loader. And her carb of choice is bread, particularly toasted bagel. Edie loves her some bread (pardon my southernism). It's astonishingly amazing how much she craves bread. I guess she needs the carbs to fuel her daily naps, her diva tantrums, and her very demanding potty training regimen.

But something drastically changed recently. Plain toasted bagel is suddenly not adequate. The problem is that Edie has discovered the joy of butter. (I suspect this was the doing of a grandparent, though I've been unable to prove it. That's a topic for a different post - "How to confront your baby's daddy's daddy"). So now, not only does Edie demand bread but she demands bread with butter (pronounced "bowda").

Given her new found obsession with butter, an ample amount of that savory, fatty goodness must be liberally spread onto her toasted bagel. But here's where it gets tricky. The bagel must pass the butter test. If we toast the bagel and apply the butter while the bagel is still warm, the butter melts; and if we give her the bagel with melted butter, she hands it back and demands "bowda." The problem is that if she can't see the butter, then in her mind the butter must not be there. That's the butter test. She needs to see the butter.

If you're a Christian, then you're like a toasted bagel with butter. But which kind are you? Are you one in which others see the butter, or are you one in which the butter has melted into invisibility?

Christian butter is the good works which overflow from having experienced God's overwhelming love. Christian butter is the good fruit which springs forth from having sprung to life through God's grace. Christian butter is the result of God churning your heart so that your life may imitate the humble, sacrificial obedience of Jesus. Christian butter is the life which glorifies God.

Jesus said:

• "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).
• "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15:8).

Do you pass the butter test? Does your life glorify God? Do others see what God has done in your life by what you do each and every day? I pray that you will butter up your life and better glorify the Lord.

"He has told you, o man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)

In awe of Jesus,
Pastor Rick