A smell, a sound, a song, a sight…all these things trigger memories. As my plane was taking off over Kansas City yesterday morning, I looked out the window of the plane to see a big red barn.

Instantly I was 5 years old. As a little girl being raised in the Shawnee Mission area of Kansas City, my parents took me to a restaurant called “The Big Red Barn” for my birthday. What excitement! It’s quite thrilling to be little and yet understand everyone at the table was there just for you! I don’t recollect much about the meal or the atmosphere other than it was in fact Big and Red and Barn like. I can dimly picture where my parents were seated and how my brother and sister kept leaning on the table to a response of “get your elbows off the table or we’ll call ya Mable” from my mother.

Now dessert…dessert I REMEMBER! It’s seared into my imagination. Actually and more specifically…it was seared into my hand. My hand, you ask?  At the Red Barn they brought the birthday boy or girl a huge cup cake just for one. It was stacked with frosting and right smack dab in the middle was a flaming blue fire in lieu of a candle. I remember being mesmerized by the blue flame. My father said “Kathy, wait…don’t touch it yet…it’s hot”. Just as he was gently warning me, the stranger (the waitress who brought the cupcake to the table) mentioned the thing on fire was actually a sugar cube.

Sugar cubes? Oh, yes, those rare treats that went into my mom and dad’s morning coffee—which we were allowed to consume on rare occasions. I had been known to break into the pink and white box of precious sugar treasure from time to time when its irresistible and unmistakable flavor called to me from the pantry.

My father warned me…he asked me to wait…but the woman said “SUGAR” and I just blatantly and willifully reached across the table and grabbed the flaming cube with my thumb and forefinger! My father did not say I couldn’t have the sugar cube…he merely told me to wait until the flame was out. Before my parents could reach my hand to save me from the pain…I had the burning cube melting into my hand.

There seemed to be a delay in processing the pain and I just froze with the burning fire in my hand. I remember the sad look in my father’s eyes… Well, I finally managed to drop the cube just as my mother was pouring a glass of water over my fingers, therefore extinguishing the flame…but also destroying my beautiful birthday cup cake!
I will tell you…I have done the very same thing to my Heavenly Father. I have gotten distracted by pretty and alluring flames of sin at times when I know He has asked me to wait.

Sugar is so sweet and tasty…when not on fire!

What blessings have I missed from my Father? What treasure has been lost as a casualty of my sin? What gift have I never received that God intended to give me…if I had only listened and waited? When have I resisted God’s gentle instruction by grabbing on to a flaming lie from Satan disguised as sweet and good and desirable?
You?

Psalm 27:14  Wait upon the Lord. Be strong, take heart, and wait upon the Lord.
Psalm 37:4   Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart

Just Thinkin’,
Kathy  —submitted by Kathy, US