Suffering, joy, and blueberry muffins

The psalmist writes,"You speak in my heart, Lord, and say, 'Seek my face.'  Your face, Lord, will I seek."

Jesus tells his disciples, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

At our Baptism, we agree to "Seek and serve Christ in all persons...."

Following this thread, what all this means is that to see the face of God, we only have to look at other people. God dwells in each of us.

That explains why the universe operates as it does, this intricate dance of interconnectedness. It sounds like a platitude to say that the suffering or joy of a child a thousand miles away affects the wellbeing of our own children, but at the quantum level, it's true because all of us are both creatures and bearers of God.

I just read in Christian Wiman's book My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer about "scientists measuring the radioactive decay after such large-scale events as September 11 or the 2003 tsunami in Indonesia. It turns out that nuclear decay, which is, if not a constant, as close to such a thing as we can get, inexplicably increases after these events. As if contingent matter echoed or shadowed or even shared our sufferings (and our joys!). As if creation itself cried out with us."

I don't know how creation itself is responding to the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, but looking at the ripple effect of that verdict in cities around the country, certainly there is clear evidence of that intimate interconnectedness.

And as I read about the Royal Baby Watch in Britain as the due date slips past, the anticipatory delight that infuses that whole country offers another example of humanity's shared and sacred dance.

-- And just how, you might ask,  does any of this have anything to do with how we should tend the children in our care?

I'd suggest that one way to help heal the world is to give our children a chance to play, to create, to delight -- and so to bring joy into the dance. Our interconnectedness, after all,  isn't just a grim dirge of shared suffering but has the chance to be healing, even celebratory. (We also, as the grown-ups here, have a responsibility to "seek and serve" others in Christ's name through involvement in local or global issues, and as the children grow up, to involve them in this work as well.)

And so, on this midsummer Monday, I want to share my grandmother's recipe for blueberry muffins, and invite you to involve the kids in making them. Baking is such a good reminder of how all sorts of different ingredients can get mixed up and turn into something delicious for sharing. As you smell them baking, think of how that aroma is spreading out like balm into the whole world.

Ruth Hyde Hanford's Blueberry Muffins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Line a muffin tray that makes a dozen muffins with muffin papers.

Mix or sift together:

 2 cups unbleached white flour
 1 cup sugar
 4 teaspoons baking powder
 1 teaspoon salt

Separately mix together

 1/4 cup melted butter
 1/4 cup milk
 two large eggs

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix lightly. If it's too dry, add a couple more tablespoons of milk as needed. Don't over-mix.

Then add

 2 cups of blueberries -- fresh are lovely, but frozen (defrosted) blueberries also work just fine

Fill the dozen muffin papers with the mixture. (If you prefer smaller muffins, you might be able to make another half dozen.)

Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes (closer to 15 if you make smaller muffins).

Read Robert McCloskey's Blueberries for Sal while the muffins bake, and you might see the face of God even in the bears.