The Right Mix!

Why doesn't this have any taste? I asked myself as I sampled the mixture of cocoa, water and butter to be added to the batter of the chocolate sheet cake I was making. Well, it would only be a half recipe, since the two of us couldn't eat a whole cake. On second glance, I saw that that was a lot of water in the pan. I had been mentally dividing the ingredients by half, but I must have put in a whole cup of water instead of a half-cup! Seemed it needed salt, too, but the recipe hadn't called for salt.

Then it hit me! Not only was it watery and too thin, I had used unsalted butter! I had completely forgotten that the new carton of butter I opened was the unsalted variety that I had bought last week because it was on sale! Apparently, salt in the butter would have been sufficient! Not wanting to waste the butter and cocoa, I poured half of the blend out, reducing the liquid. I had no idea how the cake would turn out. The frosting tasted flat, too, as I spread it on the cake, so I impulsively topped it with a light sprinkling of salt. (Reminded me of the salted caramel so popular now.)

The cake was okay, considering my sense of taste is absent lately, anyway. But I thought about the verse in the Bible that says believers are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men." I guess when the salt loses its savor, or taste, it is kind of like Christians who have lost their enthusiasm, zeal, or passion for spreading the gospel.

Jesus is also quoted in Matthew 5:14 as saying, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. (15) Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. (16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

In the parable of the sower, Jesus illustrated obstacles to faith. He talks about seed falling on stony ground, among thorns, and even eaten by birds. He notes how the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches chokes and causes the word to be unfruitful.

But in Matthew 13:23, He says, "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth much fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

May we not be flavorless like unsalted butter, but salt and light to the world! And a little sprinkling of salt never hurts!