The Sunday Picnic

(from Laura Leigh Benson-Greer's father, passed on to me from Marjorie Thompson)
The story goes like this:
You know those kinds of days. The announcement is made -- "Let's all meet after church on Sunday for a picnic. You bring supper and we'll provide the iced tea." But if you were like me, you came home at the last minute. All you could find was one dried-up piece of baloney and two slices of dried-up bread, one an end piece. And you got mustard all over your knuckles trying to get the last little bit from the jar. You wrapped your sandwich in an old paper bag and went to the picnic. When it came time to eat, you sat at the end of a table and pulled out your sandwich. But the folks next to you had brought a real spread! The lady had cooked all day and had homemade fried chicken and potato salad and homemade rolls and big sliced tomatoes and two chocolate pies to top it off. And they turn to you and say, "Why don't we just put our food together!" "No, I couldn't do that, " you murmur, with your eye on the chicken. But they insist saying they just LOVE baloney sandwiches. So there you sit, eating like a king when you came a pauper.

This Sunday we had a picnic like that. I planned to make these killer cupcakes, but set-up for Sunday School took longer than I thought. Then I dyed my hair the wrong color and spent hours trying to re-color it. So I showed up with less than a feast. But it hit me again.
Isn't life with God like that. We do our best, put together our baloney sandwiches, and what we're offered is a feast of blessings. This week for me its the kids. They are all growing into such wonderful, strong, caring, thinking, beautiful people. We parents do our best, bring our best to the table, but then God's spirit fills them and they become so much more than we could have ever imagined.