Benescke Janse van Rensburg

In the run-up to Father's Day yesterday, my 5-year-old had one desire: She wanted to bake a cake for Daddy. Not any cake, a rainbow cake! This means four layers of cakes on top of each other with icing sugar between the layers and covering it.

Anyone who has already baked a cake with a 5-year-old and 3-year-old, will agree that it can be quite a challenge – especially because they believe they have to taste the content of the bowl every now and then, in order to ensure the end product will be delicious.

With the start of the decorating process of the cake, I decided to open a tin of brown caramel that could be smeared with the icing sugar between the layers of the cake - this is my absolute favorite. My children, who have never tasted caramel, gave it one look and refused to taste it because "it does not look nice".

A step of faith in our own lives usually initially “does not look nice”. It involves risk and uncertainty. It requires something from us - almost like Peter who had to get out of the boat before he could walk to Jesus on the water. To experience the breakthrough or miracle requires that we "put our fingers in the caramel and taste it".

In Psalm 34:8 the Psalmist writes: "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him."

When we take a step of faith, we taste and see something of God's character. And while I looked at my two children yesterday, who earlier refused to taste the caramel, indulging in the the cake filled with caramel, I realized once again how easily we miss out on amazing experiences with God, when we are too afraid to trust Him for His best! God bless.

Father God, I want to taste and see Your goodness in my life. Please help me in times of uncertainty and fill my heart with faith and trust in You. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.


• See a photo of the rainbow cake (with caramel) on www.benescke.co.za or the Stories of Hope page on Facebook.