The Bible holds multitudes. Take, for example, the subject of Christmas cookies and the other similar confections we concoct during this season for gift giving: caramel popcorn, homemade Cherry Mashes, peanut clusters, fudge, and anything using Hershey kisses. And the lesser treats: Chex mix, frosted pretzels, candy canes and dark chocolate M&Ms. When I look at the building blocks of all this sweet bounty, brightly colored like a mosaic, on special end caps at the grocery, then spilling out of the plastic sacks in the kitchen….maraschino cherries for one recipe, almond bark for another, condensed milk, Rolos for unwrapping….all those ingredients one only purchases for holiday baking….what else can I possibly see but “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.”? Powdered sugar...cream cheese….candy canes for pounding...and so much butter I’m embarrassed to enumerate it.
I pray using this verse from Luke, the very words of our Lord in the Beatitudes, is not sacrilegious. But, in some tangential way, I consider the making of Christmas cookies akin to Mary pouring the expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet...and then wiping them with her hair. Christmas cookies, lavished with chocolate and nuts, or cunningly shaped and decorated, aren’t just simple constructions of flour and sugar and shortening. We know they are treats….not necessary, but extravagant….and sometimes so lavish, so sweet, and so rich as to be inedible! But that’s why we give them: to be just a little bit over the top ….in decorations….in calorie content. “Good measure….running over.”
Martha, Mary’s sister, not maligned so much as not up to snuff in her choices as a hostess, is also a Christmas cookie kind of gal. Anyone with a sibling knows Martha, from her all too human aside to Jesus (“Lord, don’t you care that Mary isn’t helping!”) regarding her sister to her desire to have everything just right. This story is in the Bible for all of us through the ages who get so wrapped up in the worry of serving that we miss the fun not just of giving, but of receiving too.
So be a little Martha and a lot of Mary. Bake that Christmas dinosaur. Don’t sweat the plates or presentation or the angels without heads. Give the kids the honor and glory of making and baking. Spread the sprinkles. On this earth, we won’t always be able to give the people we love what they most need.
But we can always give them cookies…..
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