The Pavlova God

After seeing the beautiful pavlova heart @zoebakes posted on her Instagram around Valentine's Day, I was instantly obsessed and had to make it.

Something about myself that I'm becoming more aware of and almost concerned about is my full throttle impulsive pursuit of ideas. I desire to create and finish creating almost instantly. But that's not today's story....

I quickly began making the pavlova, making sure to document it so I could post it on my Instagram. I was so excited and timed it out so that I would finish the project that afternoon before my husband went to work. He is my biggest fan, after all and I wanted him to see it. I made the merengue, carefully shaped it into a heart, and put it in the oven.

I kept checking on it and things looked good. Then suddenly, the pavlova was completely deflated and the exact opposite of what I wanted. What went wrong? I did everything I was supposed to (I thought)!

I furiously looked at the recipe, watched the recipe videos, and frantically googled what went wrong. I quickly became flustered and my movements became disorganized and inaccurate. I was so frustrated that my heart rate was up and I was impatient with my kiddos. My husband was up from resting at that time and so lovingly tried to help my figure out why this wasn't working.

After two failed attempts, you would think I'd reevaluate and try something different, but I kept trying the same thing thinking it would magically work.

I finally came to my senses and thought critically about what was really happening with this recipe. Full disclosure, it was the sugar. I was using a sugar substitute and it wasn't dissolving like cane sugar does. So the egg white were foaming and getting too much air whipped in with the sugar never fully dissolving.

The next morning, I went to the store to get the word for word the ingredients in the recipe. And what do you know, everything went much more smoothly and an imperfectly beautiful pavlova was created.

Now, I am not much of a baker.. which I probably don't need to say since you read through to this point... Baking is very technical and directions/ingredients are critically important. But I was in such a concentrated state to make this and make it instantly, that I overlooked that very important fact.

While I was working through this turmoil, God brought a verse to mind.

1 John 4: 10

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Baking a pavlova brought my mind to the Gospel. How incredible is that? How incredible is our God that He works in big AND small ways. In all of the difficulty that I endured with my sugar substitute not working as the true cane sugar worked, I was reminded that there is no substitute for Jesus. Nothing in life can fill you like He can, give you true joy like He can, or complete you like He can.

Not your job, family, money, hobby, vice. Not the hustle, the girl-bossing, the social media likes, shares and views. Not accepting and loving yourself. Nothing can substitute for Christ. We need Him. I NEED him, or this life is meaningless.

Not only can nothing substitute for Him, He became our substitute and died in our sinful place because HE LOVED US! This was the greatest sacrifice, one that can never be repaid. How's that for a life lesson come from a sugar misstep?

Philippians 2:8

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,

and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Why am I talking about this on a food blog? Well... that's a great question. I couldn't do this without God. I enjoy this part of Creation because HE put in me this eagerness to cook and bake. And he is tugging at my heart to use it in a way to glorify Him and I can't ignore that.