A Power Ranger Miracle (and maybe a meltdown!)

I once was asked to make a birthday cake for a friend of mine son's 4th birthday party.  All he wanted and all he asked for was a red Power Ranger birthday cake.  Simple enough, I thought.  I did a little research and determined I could make the head of a Power Ranger.  Looking back, it's a little morbid as the idea of a decapitated power ranger is not especially appealing.  I have convinced myself that it was a helmet, not a head! 

As my night began, I felt confident and very sure of myself that I could pull off the vision I had.  I spent hours (literally) mixing red dye into fondant to cover the 6 layers of cake.  My pink hands were proof of that!  As I went to lay the giant piece of fondant over the cake the horror set in as I realized it wasn't large enough to cover all the way to the bottom (if you missed that before, it was 6 layers high!).  The mature cake decorator that I thought I was then proceeded to ball up that giant piece of fondant and throw it across the kitchen! 

Humbled and defeated, I cried.  It was midnight.  The party was the next morning.  I cried some more. 

I wondered what time Costco opened and how quickly they could make me a red power ranger cake.

My head was spinning and felt like a total failure.

Then, I remembered something I had totally forgotten that could totally save me!  I hadn't even thought about praying about my little predicament.  In that moment I was trying to get myself out of situation that I didn't have an answer for and I was coming up with nothing.  I took a deep breath and prayed for a way out.  For a fresh idea.  I prayed for energy, for more time, and ulitmately, for a miracle.  As I scraped my emotions and pride off of the kitchen floor (along with the giant  ball of red fondant), I had a glimmer of hope.  I was not going to let this power ranger take me down.  I was suddenly determined!  I pulled myself together and managed to create a cake that any 4 year old would go crazy over (that is, if you like power rangers!).

The moral of the story is this: that night in my greatest weakness, in my biggest moment of failure I realized I had nothing left within myself to finish what I had started.  But I also discovered that God really does respond to our requests, big or small.  They all matter to Him, because they matter to us.  Don't get me wrong, I am very aware that it was just a cake, but it really wasn't about cake at all.  God uses moments like these as opportunities to reveal Himself to us, if we choose to see them. 

2 Corinthians 12:9 says that in our weakness, He is made perfect.  Once I realized that I couldn't do it in my own strength, God showed up and made up the difference.  When I am weak, then I am strong!  No, the cake wasn't perfect by a long shot but God gave me grace that night as He always does.  His perfection was unmistakable to me even if it came in the form of a red power ranger and a giant hug from a sweet 4 year old birthday boy.