By Reba Phelps
When my oldest daughter was in lower elementary school, the parents were allowed to send a cake or cupcakes to the class to celebrate the student’s birthday. It truly did not matter whose birthday it was, the children were ecstatic anytime cake was involved. (I feel the same way, cake equals happiness) This gave the kids a nice, sugary break from learning and enough energy to finish the day.
When December rolled around I began to prepare for the treat that I would send to school. Being a young mom, it was always hard to find the time to bake homemade goodies from scratch. More times than not, it would be store bought generic cupcakes for the class for the various birthdays or holiday parties. But this year I wanted to make the cupcakes extra special. I found a recipe for a homemade white cake with cream cheese icing. Then, with it being December, I would sprinkle the cupcakes with red and green glitter.
I was going to dazzle the elementary kids with my culinary skills. It would be the talk of the playground. Mrs. Reba’s homemade cupcakes with homemade cream cheese icing. I could hear the laughter of the delighted children as I baked all evening. I even purchased a shiny new cupcake toter to commemorate the occasion. As I drove my daughter to school I was giving her all the information she needed to know about the dessert. “If anyone asks, these are homemade and the icing is hand whipped cream cheese icing.”
She smiled politely as she exited the car, but I could tell she did not understand the magnitude of what was happening. Mom baked from scratch.
After I arrived at work I kept thinking about how proud I was of the sacrifice I made in order to make this happen. This was worthy of a self-proclaimed mom of the year award. Nothing could beat the joy I was feeling. Until I picked her that afternoon. As she clumsily entered the car, her hands were completely full. She had her backpack, lunchbox and the shiny cupcake toter. I noticed as I was helping her, that the cupcake toter was suspiciously heavy, almost as if the cupcakes were not served so I questioned her. “Baby were their lots of kids absent or did y’all get punished for something and couldn’t enjoy the tasty treats I sent?”
She looked at me with her big blue innocent eyes and said, “Something was really wrong with the cupcakes, the teacher had to help us scrape off the weird icing, so we scraped back it into the box!”
I’m sorry. What? I questioned her further and asked what was so weird about it. She on to describe in great detail the grotesque texture and taste. She even asked me to never do that again, apparently it was the worst thing that ever happened to second graders. I didn’t even bother defending myself or the homemade goodness that I worked so hard to create. I chalked it up to their tastebuds not being prepared for the gourmet delight that was offered to them. They merely weren’t ready for the delectable dessert that was available to them.
This reminds me of the beautiful blessings from our savior. Sometimes we are not ready to experience all that he has in store for us. We miss so many blessings because our spiritual lives aren’t mature enough to know exactly what God is capable of. Sometimes he will give us a small taste of his goodness and we truly don’t how to accept it. Almost like we feel like we are not good enough to receive all that God has planned for us. God has good plans for those who love him. God’s homemade goodies have been in the works for us since before he formed us in our mother’s wombs. His plans are so good that our minds cannot comprehend them. God’s homemade goodness is always better than the store bought, artificially flavored gifts.
“But it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-11
Reba Phelps jreba.phelps@gmail.com