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Complete

 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10)

 

This weekend, a friend is doing a “Christmas in July” thing, online, just for fun. She mentioned the idea of listening to Christmas music and making Christmas treats. Of course, one has to twist my arm and threaten my life to get me to make something to eat (and if you believe that, I have a great bridge to sell you.) Last night, I found a recipe for gingerbread muffins with cinnamon-cream cheese icing.[1] Sounds unhealthy and yummy, and the picture shows the icing piled as high on the muffin as the muffin is tall.

So, if I were to mix the sugar, the butter, the egg, the molasses, the flour, the baking soda, the cinnamon, the cloves, and the ginger together and bake them as directed, would they be muffins? Would they be complete? The obvious answer is “Of course.”  They are perfectly good muffins. But, as we continue through the name of the recipe, or down the recipe, there is the cinnamon-cream cheese icing. With those words and the continued recipe, suddenly, the perfectly complete muffins are suddenly lacking. In fact, not only are the gingerbread muffins lacking, but all muffins are lacking if the icing is not added.

No doubt, anyone reading this in connection with the passage at the top knows the direction it is taking. If we failed to add the water, or the flour, the muffins would not be muffins. Without Jesus, we are not complete. With Jesus, we are, but all too often, we see something, and decide that even with Jesus, we aren’t complete without that icing. In fact, some of us tend to think that the icing is far more important than the muffin.

These are questions we face on a daily basis. Am I complete without that (whatever that is)? Is it part of the muffin or is it icing? If it’s icing, it might not be bad for you, but it doesn’t make you complete.

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