Lemons, Lemonade, and Watery Custard

A women’s devotional

by Karen Roberts

Years ago I frequently heard a song that said, “When life hands you a lemon, try making lemonade.”  Every now and then the tune pops into my head.  Maybe God is giving me a friendly reminder that when things don’t seem to go right, I should take a second look and see how the situation could be turned around into something good.

I know it’s a worn out saying that “Every cloud has a silver lining.”  But I’ve found it to be true.  When we ask God for His perspective, we see how negative situations get turned around and serve a purpose.  Romans 8:28 tells us that “All things work together for good to those who love God.”  When we walk with God in our day by day lives, He takes things that could tear us down and uses them for good.

Two days ago I had an opportunity to “make lemonade.”  I mixed some ingredients for custard and put them in an old aluminum cake pan that I hadn’t used in quite awhile.  I lowered the pan into a large pan of steaming hot water and set it on the oven shelf.  As I looked down, I noticed a thin stream of custard mix leaking through the pan and into the water.  Evidently it had developed a tiny hole somehow.

I must have shouted, because my husband came running.  I wasn’t thinking straight and was trying to lift the pan out of the hot water with big old pot holders.  They were half dipped into the hot water, and I couldn’t get a firm hold on the cake pan.  If I had been thinking, I would have realized that the cake pan wasn’t even hot yet.  It hadn’t baked yet!  But the hot water was soaking upward toward my hands.

My husband held onto the water pan while I finally pulled out the cake pan and frantically sputtered, “I don’t know what to do!”  Then I reached in the cupboard and grabbed a glass pan and dumped what was left of the contents into it.  As I turned to put the aluminum pan in the sink, I thought I heard my husband say, “Is it OK to use this water?.”  Now I thought that he meant, “Is it OK to place the glass pan into the pan of hot water so it can bake.”  But he mistakenly thought that all that water had leaked out of the aluminum pan and into the bigger pan.  I think he actually said something like, “Is it OK to add this water back?”  I answered, “Yes.”

I was rinsing off the aluminum pan when, to my horror, I saw him pouring all the water into the custard mix that was in the glass bowl.  I squawked, “NO!” too late.  Right away, I had a sinking feeling and pictured dumping out the whole thing.  I gulped away my anger and calmly explained to my husband that the water was not part of the custard mixture.  He looked at me and said, “Can you thicken it somehow?”

That got me thinking, “How can I make something out of this mess?”  I can’t say that I actually prayed about it.  But when we walk with God, He inspires us.  I had one egg left, which I cracked open and added.  Then I poured in some raisins and some rice, hoping that somehow the rice might absorb that water during the baking process.  Then I popped it in the oven.

Suddenly I became strangely calm about the whole thing.  In fact, I was beginning to see the humor in it all!  I had to bake and bake that custard – double the time on the original recipe.  What I ended up with was a rice pudding-like concoction. Yes, it was a bit watery – I poured some of that off the top when I took it from the oven.

I had to laugh later when I dished it up.  There in the middle was a cooked egg yolk.  Evidently, when I added that extra egg, the hot water boiled it on the spot.  It was like a hidden treasure in my watery custard.  Actually, my crazy custard mixture tasted pretty good!

Are you feeling like a watery custard mixture today?  Ask God to add His extra ingredients and turn you into some yummy rice pudding.  Maybe He’ll even throw in a hidden treasure as a surprise!

 

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