When the text message arrived on my watch I could tell that it was a photo. I looked down and the words “Kathryn sent an image” flashed by in an instant. I was at work while she was at home so I just assumed it was a photograph of one of our pets doing something they shouldn’t be doing, which happens quite often.

It was a particularly busy day at work so I pressed on with my tasks. A moment later my watch buzzed. And it buzzed again. Glancing down, no surprise to me, it was my daughter again. She was “text stalking” me until I acknowledged whatever the current emergency was. It was at this moment that I internally pondered if I ever read the book “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to her as a child. Hmmm. Probably too late since she will be a senior in high school this fall.

Note to self, add this to the list of life lessons to cover this next school year.

Her stalking worked. I opened my phone to see what all the ruckus was about. Right before my eyes was a carefully taken photograph of a bagel toasted to perfection. Between the sliced bagel was an exquisitely placed fried egg, fried bacon and melted cheese. It was such a cool picture, it almost looked like a stock photo from a menu. Did she order this? Nope. It was neatly placed on a plate that I would soon see laying around the house somewhere.

I asked if she cooked that for herself. I could see the pride in her response, “Yes ma’am, all by myself”.

Being the concerned mom, and insurance agent, that I am… I quickly surmised that the bacon was prepared in the air fryer, so need to worry about safety measures. But, had I taught her to fry an egg yet? I couldn’t verify how she learned that but I know she has watched me fry an egg hundreds of times. Once I praised her efforts I returned to my work and didn’t think about the perfect bagel again.

That was until I washed dishes later that night.

Soon after supper my daughter returned to her room to watch her favorite show while I cleaned the kitchen. All of the dishes were receiving my very best “lazy girl had a long day” washing until I ran across a tiny soup pot that appeared to have oil and fried egg particles inside of it. To be clear, this tiny pot is known as the pot one would heat one can of green beans or a can of Spaghettios. It’s the smallest pot that comes in a set. I was so concerned, surely not, did she fry an egg in a soup pot?

I called out her name. She slowly and begrudgingly made her way to the kitchen with a very labored “what” response. Not wasting any time, I asked her if she fried an egg in a soup pot. Looking at me as if I were asking her to confess to a crime, she confidently affirmed my investigation was in fact correct. I honestly couldn’t decide if I was proud because she “made do and made it happen” without asking or if I was concerned because of the things I have not taught her yet.

Immediately I praised her skills and just told her that small skillets were awesome too.

At the same time it totally reminded me of God’s goodness and provisions. He always provides for his children even when we don’t deserve it or expect it. Sometimes we don’t even recognize what he has done for us because while we may be waiting on a skillet to come our way, he has had the soup pot waiting in the cabinets the entire time. While the soup pot got the job done just fine, we would have preferred a skillet.
God’s gifts do not always look the way we expect them to. God’s ways are not our ways, he is way more adventurous and clever than that!

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9