Orange Moon Cafe "Character... Capability" Conclusion: No Cookie Dough

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe...

 

  "Character… Capability"

 

Conclusion - "No Cookie Dough"

   

   When I was a child, the round tubes of cookie dough many of us love first hit the shelves.  My mother bought a tube, and I fell in love with the initial batch of cookies she made.  However, I also discovered a fascinating truth of the universe: raw chocolate chip dough is better, by an almost infinite measure, than the cooked version!

   I begged my mother to just let me eat the dough (which, if I am correct, the packaging still recommends against).  "It so good, Mama!  And I love it!  And you won't have to go to the trouble of cooking it!"  She wouldn't relent, however, which led to my sneaking thin slivers of the dough in the dead of night, hoping my mother wouldn't notice.  She realized my larceny, of course, and warned me that if I didn't cease and desist, she would stop buying the cookie dough.  The upshot: I sure missed that stuff through the years!  

    "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts: (James 4:3).

    I had a good mama (she went to be with the Lord twenty five years ago today.  Sigh… ).  I could not get her to budge regarding the cookie dough because regardless of how much she loved me and desired my happiness, she possessed enough character to do that which was best for me.  She served as an incredible example of our Heavenly Father.  He loves to bless us with gifts that fill our hearts with joy and happiness.  "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).   However, even more than my mother, we cannot get Him to budge regarding the faithfulness of His character and subsequent administration of that which is best for us.  This means that some prayers will not and cannot be answered (or some will be answered, but in ways we may not perceive as answers - Isaiah 1:15; Romans 11:33).

   When we get to Heaven, I have little doubt we will praise and thank our Heavenly Father as much - perhaps more - for the things He didn't do as for the things He did.  Our perception of need is presently so skewed by our human weakness that disasters of catastrophic proportion would result if the Lord always acted according to our whims.  I think about this wonderful purity of character every time I think of my mother and that cookie dough.  She was who she was, a mother devoted to her son's well being.  She acted accordingly in countless ways, and on this day so long after she left us, I give thanks for her yet again.  And in this moment, let us join the Psalmist in praising the Father so worthy of our accolade for always acting in accordance with His perfect being, nature, and character...

"I will extol Thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable… The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Psalm 145:1-3; 17)   

 

Memory Verse

      "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." 

(John 3:6)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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