What do they see in our salvation?

I have a relative that has told me that it isn’t usually the kids of Christians that become Christians but kids that grow up with non-Christian parents that become Christians. This person told me that many months ago and my mind has gone to it time and time again. This statement was made by a non-Christian that was trying to point out that my faith was something my children wouldn’t embrace. This relative used myself and my husband as an example and also used a friend of mine as an example. They pointed out the way my husband, my friend, and I were all raised then pointed out the difference in those upbringings with the way my husband and I, and my friend are raising our children.

I can see the truth in this relative’s statement but I also look to Scripture to see what it says. My mind first goes to the verses where we are told the Lord will chose those that he will give salvation to.

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, Ephesians 1:4-5 ESV

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11 ESV

In those verses I can clearly see that my relative’s statement, and the thoughts that prompted it, has no bearing on anyone’s salvation. Scripture tells us that the Lord will chose those that He wishes to give salvation to and will withhold salvation from those He chooses to withhold it from.

Our upbringings factor into our salvation in the sense that we were placed into the life we were so that we could become the people we were decreed to be. People came and went from our lives as the Lord willed them. Some were there to touch our lives, others were there for us to touch their lives.

And still, it was all done, all placed in our lives, for the purpose of the Lord. I once wrote an article that questioned how much of what happened in our pasts had to be there to get us to the point where the Lord can save us.

I think of a layered cake and how it must be put together piece by piece. Layer by layer. To make it you must start first with an empty bowl. Into that bowl goes flour and oil, eggs and sugar, until all the ingredients needed are there. Then you mix it together, remove the lumps. When it’s ready it is poured into a pan to go into the oven. That sounds simple enough but at some point while you were gathering the ingredients, getting them ready, putting them into the bowl and mixing them together, somewhere in there you had to get the pan ready too. The pan required oiling and dusting with flour to be ready for the cake mix at just the right moment when the cake mix was ready for the pan.

Getting that pan ready meant doing two things at once. At some point in the making of the cake mix…maybe while you melted butter or let milk come to room temperature…you had to work with the pan while you were still doing something with the cake mix. Or else you prepared the pan before you started the cake mix. And in the case of a layered cake you had to prepare multiple pans.

With the pans waiting, you get the cake mix ready so that at just the right time you can pour the cake into the pans. They are already there, waiting to fulfill their purpose in the life of the cake.

Now that they have come into the picture those pans that seem so insignificant now have a vital role. They must hold the cake together until it has matured (cooked) enough to hold itself together. Much the way the bowl seemed of little importance during the mixing stage, the pan now seems of little importance in the baking stage. But both the bowl and the pan are vital. The bowl was there, waiting and ready to accept all the ingredients needed to turn flour and oil, eggs and sugar, into a thick creamy batter that could be baked to become what it was created to be. Now it is the pans turn to seem to be of so little importance in the life of the cake. It does nothing but sit there. As the baker checks the cake, he or she pays no attention to the pan. It is the color and consistency of the cake that is noticed and watched closely. The pan is of no importance during this stage in the life of the cake…yet it’s vital. Without the pan there would be nothing but a gooey mess in the bottom of the oven. Had the baker tried to put the cake into the oven without the pan, they would have had to spoon the cake into the oven spoonful by spoonful. The cake batter would have dripped through the racks in the oven and created a mess on the bottom. In the end the result would have been a mess that looked nothing like a cake. The pan is vital to take that batter and hold it together until it’s strong enough to hold itself together.

Once the cake has been baked, transforming a creamy almost liquid into a spongy solid cake, the pan’s role is over. It’s time for the baker to separate the cake from the pan. The cake has now moved beyond the pan. It no longer needs the pan because the pan has served its purpose in the life of the cake. And so the baker carefully separates the cake from the pan that has been its sole source of support as it transitioned from an almost liquid to a cake. If not done properly the cake will fall apart. If done the right way the cake comes out in one piece, strong enough to stand on its own.

And so the cake is gently transferred from the pan to the cooling rack (or a plate, or tray, that serves the same purpose). Where the bowl once was so vital for the cake, then the pan, now it needs the cooling rack but not in the same way it needed the pan or the bowl. At first the cake couldn’t make it without the support of the pan or the bowl but now the cake has gotten to a point where it is better off with the cooling rack but it will still be a cake, will still become what it’s supposed to if it doesn’t have the cooling rack. The cooling rack is there for a time but it isn’t vital to the cakes growth.

Once cooled the cake must now move into the next stage of its life. It is ready to start truly growing now. Before it was developing, becoming what it would be, now it is time for that growth to really show up. But long before the cake got to this point the baker had to prepare the way for that next step. While the cake was busy cooking, growing into what it would become, the baker set the stage for the next step in the life of the cake by preparing the frosting that would be needed.

The baker takes one layer of the cake and places it on a tray of some kind that will be the support of the cake. Then he or she spreads frosting over the top of the cake. The frosting must go on thick enough for the next layer to hold onto the first. Once the frosting is thick enough the baker carefully transfers another layer of cake onto the first layer of cake and makes sure that the frosting is doing its job. Then comes another layer of frosting, then another of cake. Layer by layer the cake is built until the baker decides it is the right size and height. Only then does the baker add the final layer of frosting, coating the entire outer layer of the cake with frosting and smoothing it into place. Once happy with the results of the frosting the baker may then add the finishing touches. More frosting can be added in decorative designs to the edges of the cake, writing can be carefully applied to the top of the cake, roses can be placed for the joy of those looking at the cake.

Whatever the baker chooses to do to complete the cake, he or she prepared for those finishing touches ahead of time. They made or bought the roses, prepared the tubes of frosting that would make the decorative borders, figured out what to write.

And layer by layer, step by step, the baker created a cake that would serve the purpose they had in store for it. The cake was the important part, it was the main purpose, the sole focus, but during the making of that cake so many other things had to come into the ‘life’ of the cake to bring it from nothing to what the baker wanted it to be.

There was the bag that held the flour, the cup that measured it out. The carton that carried the eggs from the store to the kitchen, the bowl that held the eggs once they were broken, the whisk that mixed the eggs. There was the measuring spoon that measured the salt, the bowl that held the batter, the sifter that got the lumps out of the flour, the pan that held the batter while it cooked, the rack that let the cake cool, the oven that cooked it, the tray that held the finished cake.

And still there was more. What of the hands that carefully measured the ingredients and mixed them together. What of the hands that put the batter in the pan and placed the pan in the oven. What of the hands that removed the cake from the pan and put it together with frosting, layer by layer. The unseen hands that built the cake, making it what it was supposed to become.

When we look at the cake we see…a cake. Maybe it’s pretty, maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s our favorite flavor, maybe it isn’t. But whatever it is…it’s a cake. We only see a cake. We never see the work that the baker put into the cake, even though we may say they did a good job. We never think of the bowl that held the ingredients and the batter or the pan that baked the cake. We don’t think of what would have happened to the cake if the baker hadn’t put the eggs in it or if they’d forgotten the flour. We don’t think of what the cake would be if the baker had left the frosting off the cake. And we as an observer don’t see the place where the baker filled in a hole with frosting or used extra frosting in one spot to make the cake level.

All we see is the finished product. The cake. And the cake is the only thing of importance. It is the central character, the focus of our attention. We Ohhh and Ahhh over the cake while the baker stands back. The cake is the focus but it isn’t the only thing there. So much went into the making of the cake that it wouldn’t have been at all without the baker and it wouldn’t have been what it was if any ingredient, any step, had been left off.

We never think of the egg that gave the cake its texture, but the baker did. We never think of the sugar that gave the cake its sweetness, but the baker did.

Our lives are much like that cake. So many things must go into the making of us and yet we seldom to stop and think about what those things may have done for making us who we are now. How much of who you are is because of who your parents were and how they raised you? How much of who you are is because of that best friend you had in elementary school?

How much of who you are is because of the hands, never seen, that put all the ingredients into your life to make you who you are?

But how often are those Hands thought of? How often is the credit given to the One that placed every detail into our lives?

I read an article recently, written in, I believe, the 1800’s. In that article the author spoke to children that are lucky enough to have been born to Christian parents. This person spoke of how those children are raised with many prayers and of the blessing they receive in being taught the gospel from birth.

I think of that article now and of the statement my relative made. How is it that the children that are raised by the Christian parents lose, or maybe never grasp, so much of what it is that the parents hold dear?

The author of that article talked of what a blessing it would be to never be able to remember not hearing of heaven. I am the product of an upbringing in which I can’t remember not knowing about Christ, not knowing of heaven. But I can’t remember it ever being spoken of with a great reverence. It simply was. Much the way the sun shines in the morning.

I recently told someone of how I had watched the trees rain leaves and received a reply that was astounding to me. This person told me of how profound they found it that I had watched it rain leaves. Because they never had. And I marveled at how a person might never experience the simple joy of watching it rain leaves.

I think of that now as I think of children raised by Christian parents and how they may never know a life where they don’t know of heaven or Christ.

But do they know of the amazement of those two things that they were born learning about? Is heaven portrayed as an amazing place? Is Christ shown to them as something so amazing that He isn’t lost in the telling of the story?

I am currently reading a book to my children. This book is about a boy and a bear. As I read this book the story develops, we learn the characters, but somehow in the reading of the book those characters are simply a part of the story.

Is Christ simply a part of the story we tell our children as we raise them in our own Christianity or do we somehow show them that he is amazing all on his own? Is heaven simply a place that we speak of or do we use our faith and our words to paint a picture of what heaven is?

Are we able to show them our amazement so that no matter what they later believe they can look back one day and see that we were amazed with what we not only taught them but with what we lived out day to day?

In the article I read it spoke of what a privilage it is to be the child of parents that hold such faith, of how blessed they are to be exposed to all of that faith and the beliefs that come from it, to be shown through our parents the holiness of Scriptures, of Christ, of heaven. But it went on to warn them against not taking full advantage of those privilages.

That makes me think of the statement my relative made. How much of our faith as parents do our children take for granted? How much of what we believe becomes like a rock around their necks weighing them down until they want to cast it off and be free of anything having to do with the Lord.

It is the Lord’s will what he does with their lives even how we live out our faith before our children. But could we bring the Lord’s world alive for them so that it seems as wonderful to them as it does to us?

I think of the day I sat and watched it rain leaves. I was captivated with the sight, and it wasn’t the first time I’ve watched it rain leaves. I do it often. I also lay or sit and watch the clouds overhead. I sit and look at trees, marveling at the work the Lord put into them for me. And I just sit and enjoy the simple yet very complex creation that I’m looking at. How simple is it to watch it rain leaves? It only takes a few minutes of our time to do so. And yet…it requires that we slow down enough to do it. How easy it is to walk through the yard and be annoyed with the leaves that just keep falling.

Do our children see the joy in it raining leaves? Even if they can’t see it through their own joy do we show it to them through our joy? Or do they simply see the mess the leaves make? Or are they indifferent to them?

Our children can’t inherit our joy in the simple things, but they can be shown that joy so that they will understand why it mattered to us.

In the same way they can’t attain salvation through our own salvation but they be shown our joy in Christ, our joy in Scripture, so that someday, whether they have their own salvation or not, they will remember that it was something special for us and that we tried to impart as much of that amazing specialness as we could to them. We can’t secure their salvation.

But how do they see ours?