DO YOU WANT A PIECE OF CAKE?

Today was one of those days in the park, were you have one of those moments that you go okay, what just happened here. I had taken my son to work and while waiting for Terrica to get to the house, I was making sandwiches. I popped in an old cd of a conference I had attended years ago, of Bill Johnson speaking. The part of the message that caught my ear was how we miss God in the little things. We see God move and each time He moves, we look for him in bigger and better ways, always wanting something more spectacular and forget to see Him in the small stuff.

While at the park, did the usual, hand things out, give out hugs, talked, mostly hangout. I spent a lot of time talking to Tony from the Vineyard. Tony has such a loving heart and compassion for the people there and it is always a pleasure to talk to him. Tony had gone to get something to eat and I was standing there talking to a gentleman who I had not seen in the park before, but very much wanted to talk and have company. As we were talking I could hear yelling behind me. I turned and there were to guys, one lying on the ground and one standing over him, both yelling and threatening each other. I had seen people at the park yelling and screaming at each other and they usually work it out and go their separate ways. Today though it was different. I was standing there and I was just praying to myself, God please make these two stop and what can I do to help the situation? About this time one of them decided to start kicking at the other that was laying down. Now he has crossed the line and this going to get ugly I thought.

I don’t know what you want me to do God, but here we go. I handed my glasses to Terrica. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I didn’t want to break my glasses and I prayed, Lord please don’t let them break my teeth, other than that, if you want me to get into the middle of it I will. I walked over to were the two were and waited to see what was going to happen next. They were still going at it and the crowd was edging them on. I thought this has to stop now before we have a riot and everyone goes to jail. I yelled out to one of them and started to walk to him and was going to put myself between them. At that time Robert, one of the guys from the park, reached out and grabbed my shoulder and said not yet, just wait. Okay, wait for what, the sky to split open and the calvary to arrive?

Not more than a minute later, in the mist of all this commotion and yelling, this old man comes out of no were. He came barreling thru the people with a plate that had two pieces of cake on it. He shoves the plate between the two guys who are fighting and very calmly asks, “Do you want a piece of cake?” I was absolutely floored. My first thoughts were, “old man are you flipping nuts?” Then I feared for him, thinking these two were going to turn on him. Then I wanted to bust out laughing, because I thought these two want to kill each other and you offer them cake, how crazy is that? I truly believe God used this man to intervene though. At that very moment, everyone went silent and turned looking at this man in total amazement and disbelief as to what he was doing. In that brief moment the focus was on this man with cake. The two fighting had a moment to take a breather and refocus. Yes, they were still ticked off at each other, but the one picked up his things and made his way through the park. They did exchange a few words in parting, but the fighting had stopped.

I turned to look at the old man and he was gone and I just stood there for moment thinking, “what the hell just happened?” I thought back to the cd’s I had been listening to earlier that morning. God did not use great bolts of lighting, there was no booming sounds of thunder, no huge thing happened to make this stop. He used one little old man with two pieces of cake. So, some may say no big deal, the man offered them cake. I say thank you God for showing me that you can use the most unlikely people and things to accomplish your will and answer prayer. Thank you for letting me see you in the small stuff in life, sometimes those blow my mind more than the big things. So dear friends, look for Him in all the small things, sometimes that is were He does His best work. Oh, and the next time you have a disagreement with someone, maybe try offering up a piece of cake. What’s the worst that could happen, a little cake on your face?