The Bigger Picture

Written by Carson - Working in the Middle East

I don’t want to ever forget today, because I was reminded that even in our failures, God is good. 

Our team of summer interns have been hosting different events at the library, and one of our favorite days is when we host baking classes for the ladies. When my teammates and I asked the ladies what they would like to bake at the end of one of our classes, they responded immediately with, “macarons!” We were happy they seemed so excited, but a little intimidated by the idea of baking macarons. But we couldn’t deny the excited ladies, so the week before the event we did a practice run, and the macarons came out perfectly! We were expecting that since we had done it correctly the first time, that it would go well for us and the ladies on the actual day of the event. 

Well…we couldn’t have been more wrong. We had about thirty ladies show up for the baking class, and not a single macaron turned out good. Most of them weren’t even edible! We even ruined one or two of the baking trays from the kitchen because the macarons were stuck to the tray so badly after baking! 

One of the interns was pretty bummed out and was worried because she thought the class was a failure. God gave me words of encouragement as I joined her in the corner of the kitchen. “Look around,” I told her, “...and see how happy these women are right now.” The intern took my advice and observed the ladies laughing with each other as they tried to scrape the burned macaron off of the trays. Some of the women were born and raised in Jordan, others were refugees, and others were even from Asia, and they were all enjoying their time together. The macarons may not have turned out as we had hoped, but the ladies were just as happy. Because they were with each other, having fun in a safe environment. 

Things may not have turned out as planned, but it turned out that God had an even better plan than we could have ever imagined.