Caedmon wanted a lemon meringue pie for his birthday.  I had attempted a lemon meringue pie once before, with lackluster results.  I tend to be easily discouraged when I don’t succeed the first time I try something, so that one time was left as my only time, until this past week.  I found a new recipe, read some tips on keeping the meringue from “weeping”, and felt fairly confident as I set to work.

Right away, though, I dropped the ball.  I tried putting a braided edge on my pie crust (something I’ve never tried before, as my function over form self generally sees no need for such things).  I failed to thoroughly attach said braided edge, and when I checked the crust eight minutes into its ten minute baking time, I found the edge draping over the edge in a couple big loops, baked into a shape that could not be easily put back in place.  Nonetheless, I did what I could with egg wash and pieces of the edge and eventually ended up with a not pretty, but functional, crust.  I figured the meringue would kind of mask it, and my practical side won over my perfectionist side (it usually does) and I decided it was good enough.  One disaster (sort of) averted.

Then, I started making the filling, and honestly, the litany of mistakes I made is probably too much to make any sense out of in writing.  A brief summary, though, includes using too much lemon juice, not making enough, adding ingredients in the wrong order, and (my personal favorite) accidentally using baking powder instead of cornstarch.  There were several instances at which I was certain I was going to have to scrap the whole thing and start over.  Somehow, though, I persisted through the fifteen minutes of foam-to-the-top-of-the-pan that was caused by the baking powder, and amid many prayers of “please, God, just make this work”, did what I could to fix my mistakes…and in the end, the filling was just right.  The meringue, thankfully, went without incident (really, there’s not a lot of mistakes that can be made with whipping egg whites).  In the end the pie was presentable, and yummy.

I’m not writing to highlight my ineptness, though, or some instance of dumb luck.  The reality is that this pie should never have turned out right.  Most times, I would have just given up, but I really did not want to start over.  I felt certain that if I messed up so miserably when I was at least sort of focused and confident, I would be completely incapable of success trying again in my frazzled, defeated state.  I cried and I prayed, in all seriousness and desperation.  However trite that may seem, my reality in that moment was that I needed God to intervene.  And He did.  He took my mess and made it work.

And this is how I often find God’s grace at work in my life, these days.  My efforts rarely (um, possibly never??) go toward monumental things.  My failings and weaknesses and insufficiency surface in the every-day, mundane, should-be-easy-but-sometimes-aren’t moments of life.  So that is where God shows up, too.  He helps me see that when I am not enough, He is enough; when my efforts deserve failure, He grants success; when I am at my end, He makes up the gap and lets me know that He is with me.  And He is for me.  And I’m so thankful that He is, because I can’t do this on my own.  Apparently, even when “this” is simply making a pie.