Psalm 92:4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
Don’t you love it when God lets you see the funny side of life? Rather than getting steeped in perfectionism and inevitable disappointment, he shows us how not to take failings and faux pas too seriously. Like this past Thanksgiving.
Smoke filled the dining room as fourteen of us gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving at our house (a family tradition). I had asked my brother-in-law to bring a relish tray. Now, you should know he has very different ideas of what comprises a proper “Thanksgiving” relish tray. This year he decided to add microwave popcorn, Vienna sausages and peanut butter to his dish. Not exactly what you might expect for holiday fare, but you gotta’ love his creativity.
I was busy stressing over the fact I had miscalculated (by about an hour) how long it would take the turkeys to cook. I kept peeking in the oven to check whether the popup had popped. Then suddenly my nieces came running in from the dining room where the microwave was located. “Do you have any fans?” “How do we open the windows?” My brother-in-law had set the microwave to cook his popcorn for 4 minutes. Yep, 4 minutes! The bag exploded, catching fire and filling the whole room with black smoke. Overriding the delicious smell of turkey and dressing, burnt popcorn wafted throughout the house.
That night as the day’s events streamed through my mind, I broke out in uncontrollable laughter. Vienna sausages, peanut butter and burnt popcorn are not items I would normally associate with Thanksgiving. And turkeys taking longer to bake definitely fell outside my picture of the “perfect dinner.” Often, memorable moments don’t happen when everything goes according to plan anyway.
We’d had a lovely evening, and we made a memory.
I’m grateful the Lord helped me see the humor in it all. The psalmist proclaimed how the works of the Lord made him glad. He said the stupid and foolish don’t even see God’s works. My guess is they’re looking more for their idea of perfection than for him.
So let’s look for him in all our circumstances. I promise, when we see his works, it will make us glad.