Last night I started making cinnamon rolls.  As the recipe suggested, I could make the dough and then refrigerate it for up to three days until I made and baked them.  My recipe is from Ree Drummond, the “Pioneer Woman” who has a TV show and published cookbook.  She cooks for her “Marlboro man” and four children and no dish she prepares is small.  Nine cups of flour later as well as several other ingredients, the dough was done and in my biggest mixing bowl.  I was to let it rise for an hour, then punch it down and refrigerate it until I was ready to bake.  An hour later – that dough had risen up and overflowed the edges of the bowl!  I punched it down and thought it would never stay in that bowl overnight!  I had visions of opening my refrigerator the next morning and like “The Blob” of horror movies, it was going to ooze and spill out enveloping everything in its path.  I found my slightly larger popcorn bowl, and transferred the dough into that.  This morning – I fearfully opened the fridge and the dough had contained itself in my bowl.

Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Sitting in front of my computer this morning, I glanced out the window at the corner of the neighbor’s house where the downspout is.  Without my glasses on, I noticed a crinkled lump of white on the ground as if someone had wadded up a length of the downspout.  Strange.  After a sip of coffee and squinting of my eyes, I realized it was a crinkled wad of toilet paper!  Ha!  My neighbor is a coach and once again, his beloved team had T.P.’d his house!  Although not exactly ‘overflowing’ with toilet paper, my neighbor’s tree was definitely dripping with toilet paper!

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So now back to my cinnamon rolls.  Working with half the dough, I had to roll it out into a ginormous rectangle and then spread it full of butter, cinnamon, and sugar.  Then, I had to roll that sucker up, keeping all the gooey goodness inside.  That log roll of dough was overflowing – well more like bursting with butter and sugar trying to escape everywhere.  In the end, I had 6 pans of cinnamon rolls.

2 Corinthians 4:15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

After rising then baking my lovely cinnamon rolls, I decided to take a pan of them over to Amanda.  In exchange, I got to take home her basket of laundry.  Whoopee.  I guess Amanda had, well, overflowed a few times and made lots of laundry (sorry Amanda) and so now I had an overflowing laundry basket.

I think I have a theme happening today!  Overflows!  And, overflows can be good or bad.  Most people would not complain about overflowing with money, or friends, or chocolate.  The scariest overflow?  You know when you flush and instead of the water going down – you see it rising towards the rim?  Ha-ha!  Not a welcome overflow!  But, seriously, sometimes life can overwhelm you with troubles:  when everything breaks at the same time and everyone needs you at the same time, or things fall apart all at once at home and work and school.  Fortunately, God offers an overabundance of hope, power, joy, peace, and grace.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

You can never have too much hope and power and joy and peace and grace.  Thanks be to God!

You can never have too many cinnamon rolls either 🙂

just Laurel

fyi – The cinnamon rolls are a Father’s day gift for my Pop… although Amanda got a pan of them … and a few pans will go in the freezer to be enjoyed later!