Sweet Sounds From Heaven

When Karen called and said Thanksgiving was at her house and she was preparing everything, I thought I was dreaming. She did suggest that maybe I could bring the dessert. “Piece of cake!” Oky dokey, what to take was up to me. I remembered a pumpkin cake recipe that my friend Ginger had given me several years ago and decided that would be a good choice; only problem was, I could not find the recipe. My “great white hunter and bear killer” friend, Alma came to the rescue. There it was “Pumpkin Cake” by Ginger Davis. Wah lah!! This is going to be doubly good, her recipe at my Thanksgiving.

Later when thinking about the recipe retrieved from my friend, I realized pumpkin was not one of the ingredients. Another phone call was placed and we both decided to add a can of pumpkin. I recalled the cake had layers, so we decided on three. Seemed easy enough.

The 1st layer was a yellow cake mix and 1 egg pressed into a 9×13 pan. Then the pumpkin mixed with the spices and vanilla spread on top of the pressed cake mix. The last layer was cream cheese, butter, vanilla and a box of powered sugar blended and placed on top. It was difficult placing the cream cheese mixture on top of that soft pumpkin. I’m thinking, how could this be so awkward, so I decided to dollop it. Sometimes, our brain is not firing on all cylinders. Oh well!, it’s in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Since Ginger went to Heaven in 2004, without permission from any of us, she was not available to counsel me on cooking. Before, it was always just a phone call away. The recipe was so simple, neither Alma nor I took great care in capturing it. Heck! I lost mine. Nevertheless, it’s in the oven.

Have you ever had something in the oven and suddenly realized you omitted an ingredient or something similar, and reality clicks that catastrophe is looming. Well, maybe not true catastrophe, but even so, no small humiliation. It was going on 40 minutes bake time, when I realized, Oh My Goodness!!, you always bake cakes before icing them. I got so tickled at my blunder, that my heart got a really good work out.

Well, the Bible says in James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much. May be a loose interpretation, but I am confessing my faults. I can’t prove this, but I also believe the curtain of Heaven was pulled back, and Ginger saw the whole thing, laughing all the while at our dilemma. Sometimes, the distance between Heaven and earth is breached in more ways than prayer.

You know what else? The dessert was good and went to Karen’s. Everyone wants the recipe. I’m thinking, me too! God redeems our messes. Some of our biggest mistakes can turn out to be our masterpieces. It’s also good to know that we don’t have to be perfect for God to use us. We just need to be available and teachable. God is eager to teach us and HE really is a know-it-all.

Filed under: Oops, That's Not Funny