I have created some really neat things, lately. One of Terry’s favorites has been the Chinese meal. I made shrimp spring rolls, Chinese orange chicken and spicy noodles. I have to admit, they were pretty darned tasty. So when we invited some dear friends over for dinner, I asked Terry, “What do you think I should make?” Terry replied, “Your new Chinese dishes. That’s my favorite of your creations.”
I created a Mexican casserole dish a couple of months ago Terry also really loves. I like to tweak, “the best” chocolate chip cookie recipes with my own additions. Like the famous Neiman Marcus recipe that went viral about 15 or so years ago. I double the vanilla and I use a Ghiradelli bittersweet baking bar instead of a candy bar, I use one and a half bags of chocolate chips and I add almond extract. But recipes and such … those are about the extent of my creations. I am not super crafty, as we all know and I don’t do gardening because I kill plants, herbs and a cactus.
I killed a freakin’ cactus. That’s supposed to be next to impossible to do, but I did it.
And don’t even get me started on my level of clumsiness. I cracked a rib last month (I’ll share more of that, later) and I am usually covered in bruises and scrapes. I am so not graceful. I seem to “create” pitfalls for myself, accidentally.
But of all the things I have “created,” nothing is powerful. Nothing is that unique to what other cooks create. We have to be careful not to try and create or control too much, you see, because we are not God.
Only God is the Master Creator. Only God has, is and will create and do amazing things.
“Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” - Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)
When Terry and I faced piles of stress over the past year to year and a half, it has been so hard for me to not be able to fix it. *So* very hard. I want to take the wheel and redirect; I want to make the wrongs that have been done to us, right. I want to shake the people who are dishonest and force the truth out of them.
I am not God. I am not in control. I cannot create the future; only God can.
I have to look all around me, though, and see the things Papa has redeemed in the past, and be utterly amazed. Which I am. Then I have to trust He is going to do something in Terry’s and my days that we will not believe, even if He told us.
I think that’s why Papa doesn’t reveal Himself to us, too soon. Because we wouldn’t believe it. Had you told me in March, 2009, that Terry and I would be back together, married and happy and Michala would be thriving and better off than ever, I would have laughed in your face, rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah right. Stop telling lies.”
The very reason God does not tell us before His time what He is doing, is because we would most likely not believe Him. So we have to live in a season of difficulty with a sense of trust. Trust what God is doing. Trust what He is creating. Trust it will be something so utterly amazing, we will not believe it.
Because God is so good at being God, we need to be better about being trusting. He has never once failed us. Keep Him in control of the great creations.