Do you know the Muffin Man?

Today I went with a friend to a local cafe (which will remain anonymous for the sake of what I am about to reveal!)

We stood in line to place our order. She asked me if I had ever tried one of their 'very berry, chocolate muffins' before. Then suddenly a scary memory flooded my mind and I wanted to yell at the top of my voice, "Don't do it! Don't do it, it's a trap!" But I witheld from embarrassing her in a public place and instead began to tell her the story...

When my husband and I were engaged, we visited this particluar cafe for an afternoon of coffee and catchups (as well as some much needed wedding planning, but he didn't know that!) We placed our order, "We'll have a mocha, a latte and two of those very berry chocolate muffins thanks."

Now anyone who is a coffee coniseur knows that a good cup of coffee takes time. So as we waited for our drinks I decided to have a little piece of my yummy looking muffin. I broke a mouthful off and to my amazement found a hair sticking out of the side of the muffin. "Ew gross, " I said and began to pull the hair out of the muffin.

I pulled...and pulled...and pulled....this was a long one! (I began thinking that the Muffin Man who lives down Drury Lane must be a woman or a hippie man with long hair). I looked up at my husband who had a look of disgust on his face. "Do you want me to ask them to replace it?" he said.

"No it's okay, it's just one hair." I said and proceeded to examine my very berry chocolate muffin a little more closely.

No sooner had the words come out of my mouth, when I saw another long hair sticking out of the bottom of the muffin. This one seemed to be curled into a spiral and was quite visible on the bottom of the plate.

"NO WAY! Check this out!" I said to him, and pulling the hair away, it revealed yet another long hair. We began to get the giggles at this stage. I mean how often does a person find two hairs (and two long hairs to be exact) in one meal?

Eating the muffin now seemed to be the last thing on my mind. I was quite fascinated by my unusual find and now I had the lady behind the coffee machine intrigued. I continued looking at my very berry chocolate muffin when a third hair appeared! And once again as I pulled at it, it was another long hair.

By now the coffee lady was just about dry wrenching and apologizing. She seemed more grossed out then we were and offered to replace the muffin. I accepted.

I stood there absolutely amazed with a picture in my head of someone mixing muffin dough in the early hours of the morning. Did they forget to tie their hair up? Did they not want to wear their silly 'must be hygienic and food safety is a must' hat that day? Did they hate their job and want revenge on their boss for some reason?

Whatever the deal was, I had pulled three very long hairs out of a muffin. And now I have renamed that muffin the 'very HAIRY chocolate muffin'. And it will remain that name FOREVER!

But then I began to think, "why have one hair when you can have three?" It made our afternoon so much more fun, despite the muffin replacement.

And it made me think on that verse:

"...but I have come so that you might have life, and life more abundantly.." Jn 10:10 (Jesus)

Life happens to us all the time, whether it's good, bad or ugly. Now while we all know that God is a good God, and gives good gifts to His children, bad things do happen to good people, and God seems to allow it for a reason.

While three hairs aren't really something to get all upitty about, other things like a horrible doctor's diagnosis, a car accident, or just some bad news, can really send you into a downward spiral - we must remember that God will never allow us to go through anything that He knows we can't handle (by His grace).

For in these things we find Him and we find His goodness. We grow. We learn lessons about the character of God and our character which usually needs major adjusting. And we come to realise that life cannot be lived to the full unless there is a mountain to climb, a season to grieve, or a time to allow Him to heal us.

Do you know the Muffin Man?...

(cheesy ending sorry! :))

What the?

When I was younger, I used to absolutely LOVE getting the hicupps. It's a strange thing to love getting the hicupps, yes, because I am strange I've come to realise. God surprised me one day in this very unbelievable but true story...

My mom and I were walking through a shopping centre when I was about 7 or 8 years old. It was one of those mother-daughter hangout days which I relished, and I remember that time vividly.

We were chatting away when I suddenly got the hicupps. "Yay!" I said with glee. Yes glee. I turned to my mom who had that "is this really my crazy offspring" look on her face, and I said with delight, "I'm going to pray and ask God if I can have the hicupps forever."

And so I did. I sent up my little faithfilled prayer, and the funny thing is, God heard my little faithfilled prayer - AND ANSWERED IT! For the next full hour those hicupps accompanied us into shops, and out of shops and I was so excited! (for the first 10 minutes of it.) Then I started freaking out with the thought that I would live a life of hicupps. I would be known as the 'hicupp kid' at school and I'd probably loose my friends cos I'd become a freak.

"The hicupps aren't going away!", I said to my mom with a worried look on my face.

"Well, ask God to take them away then." she said with a sparkle in her eye.

And so I did. And so He did. And the strange thing about that day (and you can ask my closest friends and family on this), is that I don't EVER get the hicupps. When I hicupp, I hicupp once or twice and that's it, done. One solitary hicupp and it's over. Now how's that for answered prayers?

I'll always remember that day as a lesson on childlike faith and the power of a fervent prayer (and then the power of a reversed even more fervent prayer.)