a missing ingredient

So, me and my sister had the day off school yesterday. And we decided to take meringue's.

We got the ingredients out. Including the eggs -- only they were in the fridge. And we're not totally clueless -- we knew that they had to be room temperature...okay. Maybe that's because it said on the recipe. But still.

We sat for about twenty minutes, waiting for our eggs to reach the right temperature. But they were still cold. So, being greatly skilled at great ideas, we decided to sit them in front of the heater.

That made us warm, anyway. It's Winter over here. We joked about being on Masterchef and us being on TV warming the eggs. Good times.

We didn't want to wait any longer, so we got to work -- separating the eggs. The first one? A success. The second? Uh... that was a bit of a fail. Get out another egg. Sit it down in the corner. Separate the other two -- and then the fourth.

Put them in the electric beater thing-a-ma-bobby. But what happens? Exactly the same thing that happens the last time I made meringue's. It doesn't go thick. It just stays thin and eggy, even as we add the castor sugar. Bit by bit. (Yes, we really did follow the recipe to a tee. Whatever that means.;))

We added the other few ingredients without any success. But like most of our country here in Australia, we've been inspired by Masterchef. Instead of giving up... we decided to do something, experiment -- to to fix our meringue mixture. Make it thick.

We paused. And then we grabbed something out of the pantry. Put a couple into the bowl, and watching it whir around.

Walking into the lounge, we sat down and played cards for a moment -- 500, to be exact. Love that game. Even though I totally didn't get it at the start and was confused. I'm not too good at learning card games. :P

Anyway. So, a few minutes later, we go back into the kitchen. And low and behold, the mixture... has gotten thicker! We get excited. It actually worked?! We know it can be better, though, so we add a couple more of our secret ingredient. And by the time we've finished another round of cards, it's thick enough to spoon onto the tray.

We cook 'em. The oven's been on for, like, and hour and a half at this time -- and they ended up being a tad over cooked.

But they worked. We turned our fail into a success that was crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle.

It's the same with us, you know. We're goin' down. Failing. Messing up. Made a wrong decision. Said the wrong thing, danced to the wrong song.

But we're never beyond being saved. In our moment of strife, I went and googled what I'd done wrong -- and how I could fix it. The site told me it wasn't really possible -- but they'd show me how to create it right from scratch. I clicked the X button on the right hand corner of the screen, went to that kitchen and we added to that mixture  and made it different -- but right.

People might say you've messed up too bad -- or maybe they've been told that. But no matter what the world says, it's never too late for Jesus. He loves you.

I promise you that. I promise you that Jesus loves you with His whole heart. Even if you've messed up really badly... He forgive's you. No matter who you are. No matter what you've done -- no matter what. Jesus loves You.

How come I know this?

Simple, really.

Because He died for me. Because He died for you.