It Looks Wonderful to Me

A couple of days ago, my "baby girl", Ashley, made me a German Chocolate cake. (For those who don't know, my "baby" is 13.)
This was Ashley's first attempt at baking a cake, and she wanted to surprise me, as I was having a really bad day with my back and had taken some med's and gone to take a nap. When I got up, of course she wanted to surprise me, and she came rushing into my room, grabbed me by the hand and began dragging me down the stairs to the kitchen.
I said, "you've baked a cake, haven't you?" She was a bit ticked off at that and exclaimed, "Who told you?" I told her that I could smell it, and she was obviously still a little disappointed. I assured her that it was a wonderful surprise. Then she said, "Dad, it didn't come out the way I wanted it to." I walked into the kitchen with her, and there was her masterpeice... and I had to fight back the laughter. The cake sat a little funny because she did not known how to make a 2 layer cake correctly, and one side of it had just fallen apart and she had put the peices back together and "glued" it together with the frosting. Most of the frosting had run off the cake, as she obviously had not let the cake cool before she put the icing on. I hugged her tight and said, "It looks wonderful, baby. Thank you." She said, "Dad, you don't have to lie. It's a mess. I really tried, but it just didn't come out right." Still holding her, I said, "No sweetie... my baby made me that cake, and that's the best cake in the world!" Of course I got an extra tight squeeze for that.

Later, we talked about making the cake, and she asked what went wrong. As we talked, I told her how to level off the cake, and that the cake had to cool before taking it out of the pan, and cool even more before adding the icing. She was thrilled that I would teach her how to do it better, and told me that she could not wait to try making another. I told her that we should just enjoy this one for now, and that she could do another one another day. (The cake tasted great by the way, and I ate probably half that cake by myself over the past 3 days.)

This morning, I was getting ready to wash the plate that Ashley's cake and been on, and a smile came across my face as I remembered the love and effort that had gone into that cake. And it hit me, this must be how God feels when we do things for him, not because we want something, but because we love him. Our efforts may not come out quite like we planned, and we may be somewhat upset with ourselves, but our Heavenly Father says, "It looks wonderful to me. My child made me that cake!" Later, he lovingly teaches us how to do it better next time, but at that moment in time, he dotes on us, and appreciates us for what we've done for him, because he loves us so much more than I love my Ashley!