Sweet Sauce

I am quite a lazy cook. It’s not that I don’t like cooking, it just seems to take a lot of time. So, to save time I tend to cook things that only require using one pan (saves on washing up) and that I can leave to cook whilst I go and do something else. Occasionally however I will venture to do something a little more pan heavy – I even sometimes make my own sauces. There are many delicious sauces that can be made, but the base of many of them is a simple white sauce. I find white sauce to be a magical thing. It’s just milk and flour (and butter if you’re fancy), put it together in a pan on a low heat and stir. And stir. And stir. And for ages nothing happens, it just continues being milk in a pan. Until suddenly, almost in an instant it changes, for no apparent reason, it thickens and becomes a sauce! The milk had everything it needed; it just took time. Now I never measure anything (because as I mentioned earlier, I am lazy when it comes to cooking) and so the temptation during the long period of waiting is to think that I mustn’t have put enough flour in, which is almost never the case. Yet if I cave in to my self-doubt and add more flour, it doesn’t make it thicken any quicker – it just means that when it does thicken, rather than being the consistency of sauce, it will more closely resemble play dough.

I think Life can be similar. You can do the right things but not see anything happen immediately, because things take time. But in the waiting, it can be easy to assume that you need to do something more. I can also do the same with God, once I’ve given a situation to Him, I can start to doubt and feel like I need to do something more even though He’s given me no indication to suggest so. And when I do I tend to make a mess of the sauce. There’s a wonderful passage in James that says; “if anyone is lacking in wisdom, they should ask God for it, because He freely gives it in abundance”. I find that very encouraging because I often lack wisdom and to think that all I have to do is ask for it is an incredible offer. James does go onto say though, that having asked, one must trust that they’ve received it and not keep second guessing themselves or they will have gained nothing – and presumable will ruin their sauce to boot. The waiting can be hard when you see no change, but if you are in a time of waiting be encouraged; God’s timing is perfect!