When I was ten, I found Jesus in a cake. On Twelfth Night (the twelfth night of Christmas), one of our hosts made a cake with a small wooden nativity baked into it. We hunted inside our desserts for baby Jesus, a little shepherd, Mary or Joseph.
That cake was a first lesson that God hides in other things – often things that say something about God’s character. For example, Jesus describes himself as living water. This is a clear invitation to consider how God is refreshing, necessary, present in each cell of my body and a substance without which all creation would perish.
God is the bread of life. I think about how important food is for everything I do. How tired and spent I am when I am hungry.
So when I think about baby Jesus hiding inside a delicious chocolate cake, I ponder God not just as a necessity but as a delight. God in Christ is something to celebrate, a cause for joy.
I make a chocolate Twelfth Night cake now because it best tells the story of abundant life for me.
This message is excerpted from “God hides in a piece of cake.” by Cara Strickland in the January/February 2021 Gather magazine.
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