Add Black Spritz Cookies to the list of weird for 2020. Our granddaughters join me to bake and decorate cookies every year. 2020 would be no exception. Except in an effort to be sure we had green dough for the Christmas trees, I added an extra dash of green food color. The result: We have black cookies!
We joked they were cinders or coals for naughty children. Or — DIY home improvement shows are beginning a push toward one or more charcoal or black walls in their home renovations. Our cookies are trendy! Or not….
A few pics I shared on Facebook about our adventure were met with fun reactions. Someone suggested the cookies came from the Black Forest. Pleasant explanation, since the main character in my novel (still a work in progress) hails from the area of Germany close to that real life fairy-tale-like woods.
One thing for sure, the colorful sprinkles and candies the girls added popped boldly on the dark backgrounds. They reminded me of one of my favorite passages from The Message version of the Bible.
Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God–colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. ~Matthew 5:14-16 (MSG)
God has certainly given His people — you and me — opportunities in the bleakness of 2020 to be shining lights of His love. Will you allow the beauty of His Spirit within you to draw others to Him? May the God-colors of Christmas and everyday be seen from your life lived in kindness and love, more than from the festive wrappings under your tree or the glowing lights on your home, or from brightly-trimmed black Christmas tree cookies.
Merry Christmas Blessings to All!
Copyright 2020, Lynn U. Watson
All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.