Thank God for Spicy Ginger Cookies

Published on August 31, 2008 by The Joe Koski

“Yes!” I shouted, “you’ve got my cookies!”  

I always get excited whenever the coffee shop has spicy ginger cookies, mostly because they are fantastically delicious.  And most days, when I come in, they are sold out.  

This may seem like a little thing, but I really love those stupid cookies.  Furthermore, there have been days when I’ve been overwhelmed or burned out, and I’ve gone into the coffee shop praying, “Lord, I know it’s silly, but please let them have some cookies for me.”  Every time I’ve prayed that, I have gotten the last one.  

And, ladies and gentlemen, if that doesn’t show you that there is a real, loving God in this universe I don’t know what does.

I just finished teaching through Joshua with my college students and I have always loved chapters 3 and 4, when the Israelites replicate the miracle of crossing the Red Sea by crossing the river Jordan.  God shows them that He is with them (apparently, sustaining them with only Manna is not enough for the Israelites to have faith) and His miracle gives them the confidence to continue to follow Him to the Promised Land.  After crossing the Jordan, God has Joshua instruct the people to create a pile of stones to commemorate the miracle, so that anytime anyone asked, “Hey, what’s with those rocks over yonder?”  God can be glorified.  

I really feel as though answered prayer has done the same thing in my life.  Answered prayer, big and little, has always given me hope and strength to know He was there.  

When I was a kid, I would always leave my desk drawer at school a total mess.  Every Wednesday when it was time to color, inevitably, I would have lost my crayons.  We were supposed to keep our drawers clean, but well, that’s just not my style.  Every week I would be lost in my drawer, searching desperately, when I would finally break down, close my eyes tight and pray, “God, help me find my crayons.”  And every time, right after I prayed, I would move one paper and there they were, right before my eyes, in the exact same spot I had been looking moments before.  Though I had yet to give my heart to Christ, I already had proof positive in my mind that there was a God.  

As I got older, I had bigger prayers.  Whom to marry, what career to get…those were the two biggies.  And God answered them both dramatically.  

Family problems, money problems…again, God showed up and took care of things.  In the time frame I had hoped for (and sometimes demanded)?  No.  But in His time, in His way, and never once how I had hoped or expected, He came through for me.  He was faithful.  He heard and answered my prayers.  And every time I would pile them up in my mind, stones and rocks stacked in memory of a loving God.

The memory that most reminds me of Joshua 3 and 4 happened when I was still in elementary school.  Still not yet saved and wondering about whether or not God really existed, I was up late at night, talking to my Dad about faith in God.

“You know what gave me a lot of strength just after I became a Christian?” asked my Dad, “It was after I prayed for God to remove a bunch of warts on my arm.”

“You don’t have warts on your arm.”  
“Right, but at one point my arm was covered in them.  It was a mess.  I was going to have to go to the doctors to get them removed and it was going to be painful.  So I asked God to take them away.”

“And?”

“And God took them away.  I didn’t have to go to the doctors.”

Later that night, I looked at my hand.  It seemed I had inherited some warts.  “Okay God,” I said in my heart, “let’s see what you can do.”

Several weeks later I glanced down at my hand to see smooth palms.  I had long forgotten the prayer I had nonchalantly tossed out to God.  I was surprised, but not yet convinced.  “Okay, okay…,” I thought, “it could be a coincidence.  Okay God, how about giving me one back?”  

Two weeks later, there it was, a wart, in the center of my palm.  

“Huh, look at that,” I thought, realizing that my days as a junior atheist were rapidly disappearing,  “Okay, let’s get rid of that wart.  As cool as it is that You did that, I really don’t want it.”  

He took it away.

It took me several years to give my heart to Christ after that, but the lessons still stuck.  God answers prayer!  Like the Israelites, I try to hold onto every answered prayer as proof, not only that God exists, but that God cares.  When I read in the Old Testament that there was a God who was big enough to knock down the walls of Jericho for His people when they simply shouted, I also remember that there is a God who is small enough to help a second grader find his crayons, to heal a young doubter’s warts...and Who sometimes, when He knows I need it, helps an overwhelmed youth pastor enjoy a spicy ginger cookie.