Making Pancakes

Making Pancakes

Six year old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.

He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.

Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad.

He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked!

Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor.

Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky.

And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking.

But his father just watched him.

Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son and hugged him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process.

That's how God deals with us. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky or we insult a friend, or we can't stand our job, or our health goes sour.

Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him.

Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade. -- Rudyard Kipling

We had one of these moments at our house this afternoon. I heard a noise from the dining room that sounded like something falling. I started to head that way and asked Kaitlin if she was OK. She said she'd had a little accident. When I got to the dining room, I saw her standing next to the shelf with my snowglobes on it crying. Next to her on the shelf was a broken snowglobe. She has always loved to look at the snowglobes and listen to their music. She's been told at least a hundred times not to touch the snowglobes and to ask for help if she wants to listen to them so I know she was expecting to get in trouble. She looked up at me through her tears and sobbed, "I broke it." I couldn't even be mad at her. I went over and gave her a hug and she wanted to know if I had two pairs of them. She was so upset! I noticed a little blood on her cheek and realized she had cut her finger on the broken glass so we went to the bathroom and cleaned it up and put on a band-aid. Then I put Ethan in the Exersaucer to contain him and Kaitlin on the couch (with strict orders to stay put) while I cleaned up the broken glass.