A few weeks ago it was my honor and privilege to speak to a large local gathering of women. As those of us on the program met beforehand to discuss the upcoming evening, I overheard the term, “the 56th cake” mentioned several times in hushed, reverent tones.
My curiosity finally won out and I had to ask, “Will someone please tell me about the 56th cake?”
And what a story it was.
The church hosting this community women’s event celebrating chocolate had been advertising and selling tickets for nearly six weeks. Many, many prayers had been sent up, asking Papa God to bless the details of this event honoring Him. A week prior to the event, 400 tickets had been sold and 50 fancy chocolate cakes were ordered from a local bakery to serve as the centerpieces of each table, and dessert for the ladies sitting there after dinner.
These were not just your run-of-the-mill chocolate cakes, they were culinary works of art, adorned with chocolate curls and doo-dads and ornate decorations that would make your saliva run like a fireman’s hose when you merely glanced at one.
But in the days just before the event, a rush of orders came in for tickets, and the good ladies just couldn’t bring themselves to turn anyone away. Another five cakes were rush-ordered and were to be picked up right before the event was scheduled to start.
As the designated cake-picker-upper drove to the bakery on the afternoon of the event, she received a frantic call from the church. Ten more last minute tickets had been purchased. There were nearly 500 now sold. Another table would be added. Another cake would be needed.
“But there’s no way the baker can make another cake that fast,” she told the caller. “And those 55 cakes were custom decorated just for us. I’ll just have to try to look in their display case and see what they’ve got that’s already made. I may have to just get a plain one. If they have any at all. Pray hard.”
As she waited for the five boxed cakes to be handed over the counter, she saw that there were no other chocolate cakes in the display case remotely close to the same size or splendor of the ones they’d ordered.
In a quandary about what to do, she admitted to the lady in the white apron behind the counter that she really needed another cake. Was there anything at all they could do?
A big smile spread across her face. “I’m the baker,” she said. “I have a surprise for you.” She disappeared into the back room and reappeared holding another beautifully decorated cake exactly like the other 55.
“Something told me I should make an extra cake. And so I did.”
Wow! Don’t you just LOVE a grace note story like that? I sure do. It’s a reminder that Papa God loves us dearly and is involved in every detail of our lives. Involved enough to whisper sweet somethings into the ear of a baker in order to meet a need that wasn’t even a need yet.
I’d love to hear about a grace note in your life this week!
OK…here’s my grace note….but I call them “God-winks”!
As you know Debbie, even though you have made extreme fun of me, I’m building a bathroom in my trunk for “Trunk ‘r Treat”, so I need LOTS of STUFF. At a yard sale Saturday I found 2 perfect light blue valances to trim the edge of my trunk, sort of window-y looking and my car is navy blue! (The color scheme is very important in a bathroom). They didn’t charge me when they found out what I was doing 🙂 I’m thinking a cardboard box sunk down in the center of a sheet of cardboard for the vanity??? THEN I remember my REAL bathroom sink still sitting in my garage that was recently replaced; now all I need is a faucet that isn’t connected to someone else’s sink. THEN I remember Amber’s mom is remodeling her bathroom, I call her and she has a sink WITH a faucet attached AND a rainmaker shower head I can have. So I stop at Sears to get some BIG cardboard (before Bible Club) and can’t fit it into my car b/c it’s loaded down with Bible club stuff. I figured I’d have to make another trip to town with the truck to bring home the cardboard that I need for the vanity. THEN I remember my mom is replacing her shower and she has a HUGE box in her garage from the new shower…she lives ¼ mile down the road. I already have the purple toilet from VBS this year (that story is an entirely different God-wink). (Will purple look ok with blue)???? So in 1 week I have a real sink with all the parts still attached, a perfect cardboard box to make the vanity top that’s right down the road, a purple toilet and a shower head for a shower I wasn’t even planning on! (I think I’ll hook it on to a microphone stand….won’t the minister of music LOVE that?) In addition to all of the above, I saw a bathroom vanity laying on the side of the road on my way to Church yesterday (I am NOT making this up) waiting for the garbage truck. I really could have used the doors, but I had no way to get them off and the whole thing wouldn’t fit in my car; I had to pass on that offer! I suppose any ONE of those things could be a coincidence, but I choose to believe that ALL of those things becoming available in the same week is nothing less than Papa God caring about a bathroom being built in the back of my trunk (and beside it) for a whole BUNCH of his little children to enjoy next Sunday Night at “Trunk ‘r Treat”. And that makes me smile 🙂