The Baking Cabinet

I just finished baking.
I have a special baking cabinet in my kitchen with all the essentials.
Flour, sugar, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda, chocolate morsels…
Every time I open that cabinet, it brings me back to my childhood.

I have always heard that smells, more than sights or sounds, can trigger a memory.
I really think that is true.

When I was a little girl, my mother visited my grandmother practically every day.
That was not an easy task, since my grandmother lived in the city.
We lived about forty minutes away.

As my grandmother got older, and was not able to take care of herself as well as she used to, my mother would grocery shop for her, clean for her, and make her meals.
I would go with my mother since I was too young to stay home alone.

I always found something in Grandmom’s old house that I could play with.
There was a wonderful cabinet with coloring books and paper dolls.
She had a staircase with a landing…where I starred in many theatrical productions…sometimes with only dolls and stuffed animals watching me.

It was perfect, because across from the staircase, a mirror hung on the wall.
I could watch myself dance and sing.
I was performer and audience all in one.

One day, when I had exhausted all other options, I asked if I could play house.
My grandmother’s old house had odd shaped closets and out of the way cabinets.
Some were under the stairs…some were tucked in a corner.
Each of the closets had a light you turned on with a pull chain.

There was an interesting cabinet in Grandmom’s kitchen.
Since it was an old house, the rooms had high ceilings.
This cabinet was up high…much too high for a little girl to open by herself.

There was a metal stool in the kitchen that opened up and had two levels.
I was allowed to use that stool so I could get up and open the door.
The knob to the cabinet was small.
It needed to be turned between two fingers.

I got myself up on the stool and somehow opened the door.
Since the stool was pressed against the wall, I could only open the door a crack.
I got myself on the ledge of the high cabinet and pushed the stool away with my foot.

Once I was perched there, I could open the door fully.
What an assortment of smells greeted me!
Wonderful aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg, ginger and pepper…

I played house, and store, and got wooden spoons to bake with…
Hours went by…that seemed like minutes.
The only rule was that I put everything back where I found it.

Today, we buy our spices in jars, but then, the spices were in little tins.
It was so much fun when I learned to read and actually knew what each tin said.

Those smells are permanently etched in my mind.
My baking cabinet smells exactly the same.
I don’t need to get on a stool to reach my cabinet.
In an instant…when I open the door…I am transported.
I am back on a ledge in a kitchen with a pull chain cord hitting the back of my neck.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put my childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:11,12)

What if I had stayed on Grandmom’s cabinet ledge…playing house and playing store?
What if I never grew up and established my own home with my husband or shopped for my own family?

There are those who are perfectly content sitting on the ledge.
They never get down to study God’s Word.
They are perfectly content to be spoon fed every morsel.
They see no need to prepare the spiritual food for themselves.

What joy they are missing!
Get off the ledge!
Dive into God’s Word with voracity!

No more playing or pretending.
No need for pull chain lights…when you know the Light of the World.
No need for make believe…you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.
(John 8:32)

Open the door and smell it.
The aroma is wafting through the air…beckoning you to begin.
Prepare your meal with the best recipe Book you will ever encounter.

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)

Come down from there!
It’s time for solid food!
Are you hungry?