Fingerprints In The Piecrust

Fingerprints in the Pie Crust

My precious mom went home to be with the Lord when she was only fifty years old and I was twenty-five.  I still had so many things to learn from her.  I had two baby boys, and I had questions to ask about parenting.  My husband and I had only been married seven years; I wasn’t sure about how to grow old with him.  I didn’t learn how to grow older, myself, with grace and dignity.

There were so many questions I had wanted to ask.  One of those was how to make homemade pie crusts.  My mom made the most delicious pies in the world:  Fruit pies, cream pies, icebox pies, sugar pies, and on and on.  All of us children loved eating those pies, but none of us had ever learned to make one.

I understand that today’s refrigerated pie crusts are head and shoulders above the first semblance of tough, doughy, tasteless chemicals claiming to be a shortcut to a pie.  In those days, what passed for bought pie crusts only ruined any delicious, homemade filling.  So, I decided to learn to make pie crusts.

It only took two years – two years of frustration, intensive labor, expensive ingredients, and repeated failures.  I threw away enough ruined pies to feed a small, third-world country.  I burned pies.  I had patched pie crusts with holes in them.  I even set the oven on fire, when I touched the oven wall, jerked my hand away, and dumped the pie into the bottom of the oven.  Oh, my, how I missed my mom. 

Eventually, though, I mastered it.  Pies became my signature dessert.  My husband loved every pie I ever made, my brother and sisters requested birthday pies instead of cakes, and our sons devoured them – still do, as a matter of fact.  I love to touch the crust, as I mix it by hand.  I know, exactly, what it should feel like, in order to be tender, flaky, and golden brown.  I want every piece of the crust to be gone from the plate, eaten with relish just like the filling instead of cut off and left standing alone as a testament to in-edibility.  That pie and its crust are an extension of my love, my time, and my personal investment, to all who sit at our table.

I often use pie crust in teaching about God’s investment in each of us.  Instead of simply speaking man into existence in Genesis 2, God chose to involve Himself as He formed Adam from the dust of the earth.  Sometimes, women take a little different theme out of that particular lesson, and I have often been asked to teach classes on making piecrust.  What a joy it is to pass that art on to others.  Everyone goes home with her own finished crust.  Each woman’s crust is unique, and each crust will be filled with something different.  However, every crust has something in common.  If you look closely at the surface, you can see the imprints of the fingers that made it, including my own. 

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them, says Genesis 1:27.  Each of us is created to be uniquely reflective of the fingerprints of God, an extension of His love, His involvement, His investment, and His time.  In addition, each of us is leaving fingerprints in the lives of others.  As surely as God invested Himself in us, each of us is called to invest ourselves in those needing encouragement, instruction, and direction. 

Are you leaving fingerprints in the pie crust of anyone’s life?  Lord, may I be found willing to be used to touch and imprint the lives of others with the love found only in your Son!

© 2011 Gerry Sisk

(09/28/11)