Monday, September 25, 2006

"God Is Good!"


Alice was to bake a cake for the
Baptist Church ladies' group bake sale in
Tuscaloosa, but she forgot to do it until the last
minute.

She remembered it the morning of the bake sale, and
after rummaging through cabinets she found an
angel food cake mix and quickly made it
while drying her hair and dressing
and helping her son Bryan pack up
for Scout camp.

But when Alice took the cake from the oven, the center
had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured.

She said,
"Oh dear; there's no time to bake another cake."

This cake was so important to Alice because she did so
want to fit in at her new church, and in her new
community of new friends. So, being inventive, she
looked around the house for something to build up the
center of the cake. Alice found it in the bathroom:
A roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and then covered it with icing.

Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it
looked perfect!

Before she left the house to drop the cake by the
church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter
Amanda and gave her some money, specific
instructions to be at the bake sale the minute it
opened at 9:30, and to buy that cake and bring it
home.

When the daughter arrived at the sale, she found that
the attractive, perfect cake had already been sold.

Amanda grabbed her cell phone and called her Mom.

Alice was horrified; she was beside herself! Everyone
would know, and what would they think? "Oh, my," she wailed!
She would be ostracized, talked about, ridiculed. All
night Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people
pointing their fingers at her and talking about her
behind her back.

The next day, Alice promised herself that she would
try not to think about the cake, and she would attend
a fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a
friend of a friend and try to have a good time.

Alice did not really want to attend because the
hostess was a snob who more than once had looked down
her nose at the fact that Alice was a single parent,
and not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa, but
having already RSVP'd she could not think of a
believable excuse to stay home.

The meal was elegant,
the company was definitely upper crust old South...
and to Alice's horror, the CAKE in question
was presented for dessert.

Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw
the cake, she started out of her chair to rush to
tell her hostess all about it, but before she could
get to her feet, the Mayor's wife said,
"What a beautiful cake!"

Alice, who was still stunned, sat back in her chair
when she heard the hostess
(who was a prominent church member)
say,
"Thank you, I baked it myself."

Alice smiled and thought to herself,

"GOD is good."

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