Cake Walk

 

It was my birthday. Nine or ten years old. The Emerson Elementary School carnival was on after school and I had some money to play a few of the games. I never won anything, but that day I won the Cake Walk and was rewarded with a dozen donuts. I ran all the way home, so excited to have won.

Even better, my Grandma and Grandpa were visiting that day to share my delight (and my donuts!).

The music stopped. I was on the winning square. The prize was mine.

I’ve just come back from ‘brambling’. Picking the brambles (wild blackberries) that line the roads and fields at this time of year. Sometimes I had to stop and stare before I saw the little gems sparkling behind blown willow herb weeds, or in amongst the prickly gorse. Sometimes I probably missed the beautiful fruit, so well-hidden was it. Occasionally it just hangs out there asking to be picked.

Hearing from God is like that. Sometimes I can pray, read the Bible and instantly hear what God is saying to me. More often, I can pray, read the Bible, read it again, pray some more, walk away thinking about what I’ve read, and he will speak to me through some incident or image later in the day, or the week.

But I know he always speaks. He is faithful and oh, so good.