My friend Heather posted this status on her Facebook page:
“This morning the little kids came upstairs (very early) with cake and frosting on their faces. They said, “God told us we could have cake for breakfast.”
It’s a delightful image, is it not? Little cheeks covered with cake? It reminds us of a simpler time when life wasn’t complicated by propriety. Think about it. At what point in your life did cake stop being an option for breakfast? Why are bacon and eggs designated as appropriate menu items to begin the day instead of cherry pie and ice cream? (That example alone makes me question the “with age comes wisdom” maxim.)
After I read Heather’s post, I wondered what people would think when they saw it. Immediately I imagined grown ups like myself with a sanctimonious laugh saying, “That’s cute. But we all know God didn’t tell them they could have cake for breakfast” before scrolling down the page and dismissing it as another entry in “kids say the darndest things”.
Because of all the adults I know and because I know me, I’m not about to question whether or not God told them to have cake for breakfast. I wouldn’t dare. I’m too familiar with my own struggles of faith to question what God’s doing and saying in other people’s lives. What I love about the declaration of these children is that it allows for the possibility that God would want them to enjoy something good. Something fun. Something that would bring them pleasure. And in the process, He just may want to do that in a way that breaks rank with what’s “appropriate”.
As one who continues to press through a very lonely and difficult season in my life, I struggle with the feeling that God is far away. That even after years of prayer and crying out to God, my situation seems unchanged. In some respects, the circumstances have gotten worse instead of better. As I recently confided to a friend, “I feel like God’s far away and I don’t have anything to look forward to.”
Looking at my life right now I can’t imagine God wanting to give me cake, let alone have it for breakfast.
When I take a step back from my feelings and a step toward what I know to be God’s truth, I realize that I’m allowing my circumstances to define God. I’m viewing God though my troubles and in doing so, limiting in my mind His ability to transcend my reality. Which is why I’m having a hard time imagining that God might want to give me some cake. I’ve been defining God by my experiences instead of allowing Him to define Himself by His terms.
Before responding to her little ones, Heather says she wondered to herself, “Who am I to overrule God?”
Indeed. Who am I, and who are you, to allow our circumstances to dictate instead of God’s desire to bless? God wants to bless because it is His nature to bless. Who am I, and who are you, to overrule that?
So Heather told her frosting faced kids, “Use a fork.”
That’s being a great Mom.
Because table manners are important.
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give what is good to those who ask Him?”
– Matthew 7:11
Todd A. Thompson – September 20, 2010
