Ramblings

This is the most insanely pretty cake I've ever seen. The image is from flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameadowlark/3178127811/ and the directions for the cake are here http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake

I read an email from a friend the other day. One of those passed from person to person, annoyingly un-edited emails that sometimes catch my attention. It was titled The Cake and perhaps you've already seen it. In summary, it talks about a mother and daughter and the daughter has had a very bad day. She goes on to complain about all the things that had gone wrong in her day. The mother replies well would you like some cake and proceeds to offer her the ingredients separately. Of course the daughter says yuck to each one. The mother then says well, all these things are awful by themselves but put together make a great cake just like God can take the seemingly awful events in our life and produce something great.

I got to thinking about God's providence. Who would think to take rain water, wood ash, and animal fat to make something as useful as soap? The rain water by itself is great but lye is extremely caustic and well, animal fat is just disgusting. God knew we needed to be clean to stay healthy and reduce the spread of illness. He provided us a cleaning product from a very unlikely source. Might I add a natural skin cleaning product that is still superior to anything man has tried to chemically engineer.

It is often in hindsight that we see God's glory and His perfect plan. It may be a delayed plane that puts a stranger in our path. It might be a sick day that kept us from work and certain death as in the case of 9/11.

I was really struggling one Saturday morning. The weight of all that was wrong in my life was resting uncomfortably on my shoulders. I got a call from a lady that wanted to donate some things to the Sewing Guild. I agreed to meet her that morning even though I really did not want to go. I wanted to crawl back in bed and hide from the world. As I drove to meet her, alone in my car, I yelled to God "Are you REALLY listening to me? Can you hear me?". I grumbled as I drove around the building several times trying to find her. Finally, I parked and just got out and walked yet another lap around the buildings until I finally saw a gently smiling older woman looking at me inquisitively. Immediately I knew that was the lady.

I apologized for being late and she said it was all right. We walked back to the gazebo where she had left the few bags. As we walked she asked "Are you a praying woman?". What an odd question from a total stranger but maybe not. My strong facade came crashing down around me and I told her all that was wrong at that moment. She pulled out a book The Power of a Praying Woman and said "God told me this morning to bring this to you." Then we stood in the middle of town and prayed. I went home in peace. God was listening and He heard me but I needed to wait on His timing. In the end, the result was nothing short of a miracle and all my worry was unnecessary.

If all the pieces in your life seem like a mess, maybe God is just making you a cake.