S'MORES
Ever have one of those days when your hopes and dreams are crushed? My daughter did.
She was on a team of five students working for several months after school on a special project. They had to build a bridge out of balsawood sticks. They had very strict instructions about its size, weight and shape. Their bridge was entered in a competition to see which one would hold the most weight without breaking. The students drew up plans, measured and cut the thin, lightweight wood and glued it all together. Then they carefully piled weights on the structures. Time after time, the bridges cracked and broke.
Weeks went by and the competition drew closer. They built bridge after bridge, each time learning something new about construction techniques and what shapes would hold the most weight. The competition also involved a skit which they acted out as they stacked the weights on their bridge. They wrote it and practiced it for hours. Finally, they perfected a plan and were satisfied that they had an award‑winning bridge and play.
We watched the other teams before us. The competition was fierce, but my daughter's team was confident. They presented their much‑rehearsed skit and carefully loaded their structure with weights. Fifty pounds, sixty pounds, seventy, eighty, only two other bridges had made it that far. Could they go to one hundred? Ever so slowly, they eased another ten‑pound weight on the pile. The bridge held and they moved a step closer to the record. Only one bridge had held more than that. They slid past the one hundred mark and were ahead! A two pound‑weight was added carefully. The bridge held at the 104 mark, then 106. At 108 pounds, they heard the sound of cracking. The bridge collapsed! But the students cheered. Though their bridge was smashed under a pile of weights, it held more than any other. They finished their skit and watched the rest of the competition nervously, certain of victory, but afraid someone else's structure might outdo theirs.
None did. None surpassed the 102 pound mark. However, the team's victory was overturned and they were disqualified because the judges believed one of the parents gave improper assistance. My daughter was as crushed as their balsawood bridge. She saw weeks of hard work smashed unfairly. Bitter tears fell as we gathered the splintered structure. I put every piece of wood in a paper bag and tried to comfort her. But she wasn't ready to listen.
The next day, I took her to a park near our home. Without explanation, I opened the two sacks I had brought along. There was a box of graham crackers and several chocolate bars, a bag of marshmallows and two long forks. In the other sack, the broken bridge. I laid the sticks in a charcoal grill and lighted them with a match. While they burned, my daughter loaded the forks with marshmallows and roasted them over the flames. When they were gooey and brown, we placed them on the graham crackers and sandwiched a chocolate bar between the crackers. You may have had this treat before; we call it "s'mores" because they are so good we always want s'more.
After we had eaten several, and the fire died down, I explained, "Sometimes life seems unfair. It doesn't always go the way we think it should or want it to. Your bridge was good, and no one can take away the experience of working as a team to learn how to build it. But the best thing about that bridge was the great fire it made for melting marshmallows and making s’mores. When something bad happens, God can take those unhappy circumstances, if we let Him, and make something good out of them.”
