Children

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Terri’s Surprise
©

by

Stephen A. Peterson


On a sunny 3rd day of November 2003 while the older children were attending school, my almost four year old niece approached the table with a proposal. Since she is usually a quiet little girl and does not say much, I did not expect anything earth shaking from her. However, I was left unprepared when she responded, “Daddy, let’s make some cookies! I like cookies!”

With a sigh, I reluctantly set aside the story I was struggling to write, made my way to the kitchen and began fumbling through the shelves for ingredients to make cookies. I asked her what kind of cookies she would like. “Oatmeal with raisins and nuts in them!!!” Terri smiled from ear to ear as she helped to measure the amount of oatmeal to be used. When it was time to put the raisins and nuts in the bowl, she spied an unopened bag of gummy bears that sat on the counter.

“Hey, let’s put these in too!” she suggested.

The logical, mature adult in me started to say, “You don’t put gummy bears in cookies!” She stood there with a beautiful angelic smile on her tiny face so I couldn’t say no. So in went the gummy bears—the whole bag!

“I know”, I thought and then said, “We’ll call this ‘Terri’s Surprise Cookies’!” a big smile appeared on this child’s face that seemed to light up the kitchen. What's more the cookies did not turn out to be so bad after all!

I asked myself, “Isn’t this what Christ discussed when He talked about us, His children. Children usually take such a fresh approach to living and faith. Whether Terri knew it or not (I believe she did not), she filled a need that I had—to remind me what it is like to be a child. Otherwise, I would forget and go about the business of following recipes exactly as they are written, driving to the same job, interacting with the same group of people day in and out. We don’t have to be four years old to put adventure and surprise, joy and hope into our daily living. Whatever our age, we can do it now and enjoy with God’s blessing!

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