No Whipped Cream For You!

My son is a terrible sweet tooth. He’s been that way since he was just a little guy. I take no blame for that. I think it was genetic.

There was this time when we ate at a Mexican restaurant. My son saw my pretty swirled pile of sour cream on my enchiladas. He became transfixed upon the sour cream, only he didn’t know it was sour cream. He saw the pretty white pile and thought whipped cream! There is whipped cream right there on my mom’s plate. I need that whipped cream. I must have that whipped cream. We had taught my son sign language. He saw that whipped cream and made the sign for please, then pointed to the sour cream. There was an urgency in his signing. HE WANTED THAT WHIPPED CREAM! The sign for please is to put your hand on your chest and move it in a circle clockwise. My son didn’t have time to make the complete sign. The whipped cream was calling his name and his sweet tooth was getting the best of him. He kept slapping his chest, doing a quarter of a circle and then slapping his chest again. He would point to the whipped cream and slap his chest. He was so excited at seeing that pile of whipped cream, he was practically climbing out of his restaurant issued high chair.

My husband watched our little spastic signer and told me to just give him some. I told my husband it’s not what he thinks it is. He thinks it’s whipped cream. My hubby told me to just give him some so he’d calm down. “Okay,” I said. I dipped up a spoonful and handed it to our eager son. He grabbed the handle of the spoon and stuck the spoonful in his mouth.

The look on my son’s face after he took a bite of the “whipped cream!” He looked at me as if I had completely betrayed him. Tears came spilling out of his eyes. He cried so loud and so hard, it was if I had slapped him in the face. All I did was give him sour cream, because he thought it was whipped cream. He cried and cried. It took us forever to calm him down.

My son wanted the sour cream on my plate because he thought it was whipped cream. I couldn’t tell him it was sour cream and he wouldn’t like it. The huge disappointment he suffered because he got what he asked for was enormous.

How many times do we think we want something, but God says no? We want what we think is something different. It’s not what we think it really is. God always knows best. But naive, like my son, we ask for that “whipped cream,” anticipating that sweet smooth taste. God, in His infinite wisdom stops us from taking the “whipped cream.” He knows it’s really sour cream. He knows we will be disappointed in it.

God loves us so deeply. He protects us from ourselves. What we think is good or great, maybe not, and God says no. I bet there are plenty of things in life that you haven’t gotten, but could now look back and see how wrong it would have been for you. We’ve all had plenty of whipped cream moments.

God knows what is sour cream in our life. We think it’s something we want. But God says, “Careful there, it’s not what you think it is.” And we beg and beg, saying please! Please give this to me! I want it. And God, unlike me, doesn’t give it to you, no matter how hard you ask. And that’s a good thing. What a blessing! God is good all the time.