Finding God in The Cheesecake Factory

It's funny just where God decides to make his presence known. It can happen at the most unusual places. Today, I found God in the middle of The Cheesecake Factory.

Sammie and I headed to The Cheesecake Factory at 10:30 pm after my night class. Since it was late and the restaurant was only open until 11 pm, I thought we'd be the only ones there. After we had been there only a couple of minutes, much to my surpise (and that of the workers), a HUGE party came in.

Needless to say, our attention was immediately focused on the "intruders" (I sensed that "term" from the workers, tee hee). They were very dressed up--suits and ties for the men, dresses for the women. Sammie and I immediately began trying to guess where they were from--coming from a wedding, funeral, party, work. . the list goes on.

Now, I don't know if this is quite the "proper" thing to do in this case, but Sammie and I did a bit of "listening." Actually, we couldn't help it. The group was quite boistorous. Our fellow Cheesecake Factory patrons were NOT from St. Louis. They had thick southern accents. Hum. . the mystery deepened!

And just in the midst of our guessing game, came God! The conversations were about church, praise and worship, new worship songs. One man even sang (although poorly) as he immitated a fellow church goer. Another man introduced the pastor to a friend. Now I'm not quite sure where they were from, but they definitely were a group of fellow believers.

About this time our cheesecake came. And I've got to say. God showed up again. As Sammie and I traded bites of our Cheesecake, Sammie remarked, "This Cheescake takes like Heaven in my mouth!" She was right. It was "heavenly."

As we left the restaurant, I said a silent prayer. "Thank you Lord, for making your presence known to us. Thank you for these Godstops. Thank you for never ever leaving us alone. And thank you for creating Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake!"

All this and cheesecake too. God is good!