God Sees Blackberry Milkshakes

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or

where shall I flee from your  presence?
Even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day, for the
darkness is as light with you.
                       Psalm 139:7, 12  ESV

      Have you ever made a blackberry milkshake? My advice to you—don’t! When I was about ten years old, I spent a week with my cousin and as girls will do we laughed and giggled and plotted and planned and enjoyed being together.

     One afternoon we decided we would like a blackberry milkshake. My aunt explained to us that blackberry and milkshake did not go together. But in all of our wisdom, we persuaded her to let us try. She set one standard—if you make it, you must drink it all. Waste was not something she allowed.

     As she returned to her work in the garden, we gathered all the ingredients and made the most beautiful blackberry milkshakes possible. We divided the mixture in two, raised our glasses and drank. Awful! Bad! Disgusting! We added more sugar. It did not help. Finally, we sat the glasses on the counter and looked at each other. What were we to do? We could not possibly drink the potion. It tasted deadly.

     Peering out the kitchen window to see if Aunt Edith remained bent over her green beans, we made our decision and down the drain it all went. We washed the glasses and returned them to the cabinet. Our deed seemed done. But we forgot one thing. When Aunt Edith asked how the blackberry milkshakes tasted and if we drank all of it, we were going to lie. She did not tell us there would be a punishment for not drinking it all, but our imaginations ran wild.

     We never told her the truth—she probably knew. However, I have not forgotten those blackberry milkshakes or the lie we told to conceal our disobedience. Over the years, when given the opportunity to purposefully sin, I have remembered the moment I smiled at my loving aunt and lied.

     We sometimes do the same thing with God. We want something but God says no or wait, so we devise our own plan to make it happen. We connive, finagle, plot and scheme until we find a way. We usually do not enjoy the outcome because we have circumvented the will of God, and then we lie. “Lord, I didn’t mean to!”  Seriously! We didn’t mean to get caught. In our zeal to get what we desire, we often forget that God sees everything.

     There is no place to hide from God. Even the darkness cannot cover us from His sight. Therefore, my best advice to you (and myself) is when in doubt don’t! I know from personal experience that God sees everything—even blackberry milkshakes.