Cake and Ice Cream. . .

From my journal. . . I am not sure what happened this morning but God was telling me to share this story because someone out there needs to take a look around and see if they can see God standing right there with them.  I admit that this is one of the longer of my blogs, but it moved me in experiencing it again and writing it down this morning.  

Birthday Cake and Ice Cream . . . . . I've seen God in a lot of places: the waves of Lake Michigan, in the eyes of my children, and in my talks with Amy, and many more.  But, sometimes God is in the simplest things.  Maybe it's a perspective thing.  Maybe God knows when I need to see Him and it just happens.  Or maybe God is always there and I just don't always recognize it, let alone appreciate it.  And, maybe I have a role in seeing God?

That's a novel idea.  Like I have to do something to make myself aware of His presence, His power, His love, and His grace.  Oftentimes my perspective dictates when and how I see God.

I say all of this because I saw God on the coldest night of my prison sentence - - I mean it was frigid.  My Bible study was on a Monday and on this day I knew that we had a guest speaker and wouldn't be studying the Bible.  Admittedly, I was less than thrilled to go.  In fact, I was telling myself I didn't need to go - - I mean it was COLD.  No one would know. . . Hello, I am in prison.  But, God............

So, I walk to Chapel under the brightest stars on the coldest night of my prison sentence.  I walked alone and talked to God about how cold it was, how bright the stars were and how I wanted to turn back and go to my cell - I don't think I have ever been that cold (We don't exactly have warm clothing in prison . . no Under Armor or North Face in here). 

I get to Chapel and the normal crowd of 10-15 is down to 5, including the speaker.  You guessed it, it was that COLD.  We do our normal routine and the speaker puts on a rob of sorts and begins to recite from memory the Book of James. . . word for word. . . action by action.  That was powerful and I knew that this was the reason I needed to be here.  The Book of James is a powerful book for a man in my predicament and from my perspective. 

The speaker finished up about the same time I hear some commotion behind me and I looked back (prison habit of always watching your back) and I saw the CO (guard) bringing in cake and ice cream.  I thought I was dreaming hallucinating or both.  I haven't had either of those in like two years. Sometimes God shows up and sometimes God shows off. 

So, I ate 6 pieces of cake and a pint of ice cream (it's all perspective here and not one of us said "cut me a small piece, I'm dieting".)  I found one of my biggest God experiences in prison on the coldest night of my sentence. . . WHY?

Because that's what God does.  That's right up his alley.  That's in his line of work:  Making the impossible . . . possible.  It is against prison policy (and the law) to bring ANYTHING from outside the fences to us on the inside.  Apparently God didn't get that message. 😊

So, I saw God in cake and ice cream that cold, starry night.  Where have you seen God lately or are you really looking?

Tell us where you have seen him in the comments . . . 👇👇👇👇

If you are struggling it's okay help is only a prayer away.