Ugly Surfaces

I saw the most luscious looking "easy" avocado egg rolls, made with just six ingredients on Facebook. Here is the photo. It is baked, easy, healthy, and just 6 ingredients! Since I am here in NY helping my mom recuperate from a nasty fall, I hurried to the store for the six ingredients. Mom was gonna love this! I found every thing I needed except egg roll wraps. But I did find spring roll wraps. How different could they be?

First thing one needs to know about spring roll wraps is they come out of the package like thin plastic plates. I tried rolling them, after spooning the yummy inside ingredients into the center,  hoping for magic... and the spring roll broke. Of course. I don't know why I thought anything else might occur. This is what one would expect were one to attempt rolling glass into a tight cylinder. For the record, the inside ingredients looked perfect.

So THEN, after the spring roll shattered, I read the instructions. Ah. You soak spring roll wraps in water for at least 20 seconds first, till they are pliable. I did so. They became so pliable and thin that it was very hard to hold onto them. It was like wrapping solid inside ingredients with butterfly wings. I managed to roll 15 wraps and put them in the oven. Here's what they looked like when they came out:

Slightly different from the top picture, I am sorry to say. My folks were gracious though. They ate them, and Mom even said they were "tasty."

They actually didn't taste badly, but they were a little gross looking. It is so hard to have the best intentions, to try one's hardest, and to have the result be so far from what one expects. It is also very easy for others to judge the result, and make assumptions about your motivations, your methods, or your standards.

It will all be revealed as it should in the end. God alone sees our heart. He knows if we have done our best. He knows if we are unfairly maligned. Justice ultimately is in His hands. The world may only see soggy, ugly spring rolls. Fortunately, God sees a far deeper truth, the love that prompted one to struggle so hard making spring rolls in the first place.

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Jeremiah 17: 9-11

The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

“I the Lord search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward each person according to their conduct,

according to what their deeds deserve.”

Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay

are those who gain riches by unjust means.

When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,

and in the end they will prove to be fools.