Thank You, God, For Ice Cream and Cow Pies

Ice Cream:  A sweet frozen dessert, typically made from flavored cream or milk which includes a sweetener, e.g. sugar, or a sugar substitute, and can include a tasty, pleasant flavoring such as vanilla or cocoa,  often with fruit, e.g. peaches or strawberries.

Cow Pie:  Fecal matter of a cow, fresh and mushy, or solidified, often laying on the ground in the shape of a round flat cylinder, hence the appellation “pie;”  synonyms include bovine droppings and dung.

More often than not, when things are going well or better, we don’t think to say, “Deo Gratias,” Thank You, God; and it is rare in such situations to ask God, “Why are you doing this?” or “Why are you letting this happen?” The implicit basis for the lack of such questions may be that we know and we assume it will always be that God our Father loves us and He always will;  we simply do not think of Him, of trying to get to heaven; or we just fail to be grateful.

When things are not going so well, and more typically when they are going wrong or even terrible, we immediately think, “What the heck?” “Why me, why now?” and “God, (or “Oh My God!”)  Why?” This is often accompanied by, “God please stop this, now!” It is easy for us to cast about looking for someone or something to blame for what is happening, and so easy to ignore our own role, our own choices, and think that someone else is the one responsible, that someone else must be the one who is supposed to have power over everything, and who is supposed to love us.

At the moment we come into existence, at the moment He created each of us, body and soul, at that moment, He and He alone knew we were there in our mothers’ wombs. For Himself, at that moment, He saw to it that there was what scientists now call “ a zinc explosion” of brilliant light radiating out from the fertilized egg which no human being sees but He sees this light shining like His sun. He says, as He did at the creation of the world, “This child of Mine is good.” He already knows everything He is going to do to get this child of His to heaven, to spend eternity with Him.

This is God our Papa who is well pleased with each of us and who, during our life, gifts us now and then with what we think are cow pies. Isn’t it interesting how God Papa initiates and facilitates our thinking about Him and asking Him for healing, relief, peace or help? It is God, acting as our loving Daddy, who gifts us with what we perceive to be cow pies, not ice cream.

Think about the implications of this. He does this intentionally, on purpose, divine purpose. When He does it, He knows what we need, how we will respond, and what we will do. He knows we will begin a conversation with Him, often starting out as a “Why?” question, or as a one-way lament, even for some of us an accusation of God Almighty when, in the moment, we forget the fear of the Lord.

In his classic poem about God’s enduring, incessant love for us, The Hound Of Heaven, Francis Thompson explained what God in love with us is doing, doing what we often see as inflicting pain or denying us what we want:

All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.

All which thy child’s mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:

Rise, clasp My hand, and come!

God our Daddy knows what He can do in our lives that will make us think of Him, talk to Him, and urge us to journey on to be back home with Him in heaven.

And then we might come to see that the cow pies God sends us can be ice cream, not unlike the “cow pie ice cream” available from a theologically neutral company in Michigan, Cook’s Farm Dairy:

Cow Pie Ice Cream: Cow Pie is a rich and indulgent ice cream flavor that combines the smooth and creamy taste of double dark chocolate with the sweet and buttery flavor of caramel and the crunchy texture of cashews. The double dark chocolate ice cream base is swirled with ribbons of gooey caramel sauce, which adds a sweet and buttery taste to the ice cream. Finally, chunks of cashews are mixed in, adding a delicious crunch to each bite. The resulting ice cream has a perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors, with the rich chocolate and caramel flavors complementing each other, and the cashews adding a delightful nuttiness and crunch. Cow Pie can be enjoyed on its own or paired with a variety of toppings, such as whipped cream or chocolate chips. It is also commonly used to create unique desserts, such as ice cream pies or sundaes.

Deo Gratias! Thank you, God, for ice cream cow pies.