June 3, 2007
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Matthew 6:8

For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

On November 12, 2001 at approximately 11:40 a.m., my doctor called and said quite simply, “Mrs. Hood, all four tissue samples were malignant. You have cancer. I’m so sorry.” I was pregnant with our third child and already high risk because of my age and a rare blood type, but this was going to put me off the charts. The rest of the afternoon was a blur of phone calls, questions, emails and yes, a few tears. After dinner that evening as we and our two children were trying to “emotionally download”, my husband and son asked if I would bake some chocolate chip cookies (and not the slice-and-bake-kind, thank you very much). Now, I have to be honest, what I thought was, “you’ve got to be kidding. I just found out I have cancer and you want me to bake chocolate chip cookies???” But what I did was walk in the kitchen with my daughter and with a sigh of resignation start the process. Literally, as my hand touched the knob to turn the oven on, there was a knock at our front door. Standing on our front porch was a smiling, sweet friend of mine with a basket of warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven home made chocolate chip cookies (the really big ones with tons of chocolate chips). She stepped inside and said, “I didn’t know what else to do except pray and bring chocolate!” Through my dumbfounded laughter and tears, I told her what had just happened. God had obviously laid it on her heart to bake those cookies long before my husband and son thought to ask for them (Matthew 6:8). I looked at my husband and said, “How can we ever doubt how intimately acquainted He really is with our lives?!?” Now, a little over five years later and still free from any other cancer diagnosis, with an almost 5-year-old powerhouse of a boy, that evening continues to be a precious reminder of how tenderly our Father cares for us.

Dawn Hood