Cookie's Miraculous Party

Cookie's Miraculous Party

by Jennifer Lee Bartlett

1994, Revised 2003

Once upon a time, there was a chocolate chip cookie who lived by herself in an enormous cookie jar made of thick glass. This gave Cookie an excellent view of the kitchen. To the right, she could see the distant skyscraping refrigerator and the yellow tile road that led to her house. To the left, there was a huge sink filled with crystal clear water. Through the back of her house she could see the floral garden of wallpaper with its rows upon rows of the loveliest pink and yellow roses; and standing at the front of the jar, she could look into the valley far below the cliff edge of the countertop. Cookie was surrounded by beauty. She even had a sunroof in her cookie jar; but she was not happy.

"I wish I had someone to share all this with," she mused. "I know I should probably be thankful for what I have, but I can’t help feeling lonely. What I need are some friends."  Cookie looked out toward the skyscraper and off in the distance, she saw a group of various fruits playing. "If I could just get them to notice me," she thought, "maybe they would come play with me."

Cookie began to dance. Slowly, at first, for her heart was heavy. But as she moved gracefully through the jar, she was overcome with joy at the thought that someone might actually see her and come to be her friend. She twirled and leaped and spun around and around, back and forth in her jar, occasionally glancing toward the fruit to see if she had caught their attention. The banana and the apple were playing a game of tag, but off to the side, sitting alone, away from the others, was an orange. She saw Cookie first.

"Hey, look!" she cried to her friends. "What’s that over there?" She pointed toward the distant cookie jar and the others stood still for a moment to see for themselves.

"Kinda looks like a cookie dancing," said Banana. "So what?"

"Tag! You’re it, Banana," said Apple, and they began their game again.

"Well, I’m going to get a closer look," said Orange, and so she rolled down the yellow tile road toward the cookie jar.

Cookie was becoming breathless from all the dancing, and had almost given up when she saw Orange rolling toward her. She was so excited that a new burst of energy overtook her and she began jumping and bouncing for joy. She quickly ran to the edge of the glass to greet Orange, who was now within shouting distance.

"Hey!" she called. "Would you like to come play with me?"

Orange didn’t have to think twice. She was a little bored with the same old games Banana and Apple liked to play. "I’d love to," she replied. "Where’s the door?"

"Up there," said Cookie, pointing to the opening in her roof. Then as Cookie looked back at Orange, she realized there was a big problem. Cookie slumped against the side of her jar. "Oh no! How are you going to get in? Oh, I’ll never have anyone come play with me! My door is too high for anyone to reach." Cookie began to cry.

"Now, now. Don’t get upset," urged Orange. "I’m sure we can come up with something. Just let me think for a minute."

She studied the cookie jar carefully and looked all around until her gaze landed on her friends down the yellow tile road, who were still playing tag. "Maybe my friends can help. I’ll be right back."  Orange rolled away, and when she got to where her friends were playing she explained the situation to them.

"Oh, that’s so sad," said Apple. "I’d love to help, but what could we possibly do?"

"Well, I’m not sure, but I can’t just turn my back on Cookie now. I’ve got to find a way in," said Orange.

"Alright," said Banana. "Let’s go on over there. Maybe a closer look will give us some ideas." With that, the three of them headed for the cookie jar.

When they arrived at the jar, they saw Cookie lying on the floor. She had cried herself to sleep. "We probably shouldn’t wake her until we come up with a way to get in," said Orange, so they all sat down to think. Banana started to rock up and down on his back, since this was the position he could best think in. Orange and Apple studied the jar and its surroundings to see what they could use to climb to the top.

After a few minutes, Apple got bored, so she jumped on Banana, which completely distracted him, and they began their game of tag again. Orange was annoyed at first and mumbled to herself, "Apple jumping on Banana like that...how completely childish." Then the idea hit her like an apple from a tree.

"Of course!" She cried. Banana and Apple stopped their game to listen, and Cookie began to stir and perk up. Orange had everyone’s attention.

"Is there hope?" Cookie asked. She looked pleadingly at Orange.

"Yes," said Orange triumphantly. "Apple just jumped on Banana and I got this idea. If I were to sit on one end of Banana and Apple jumped on the other end of him, he could catapult me in through your sunroof!" Then she looked at Banana and Apple and said more quietly, "That is, if they wouldn’t mind."

"I wouldn’t mind," said Apple.

"I wouldn’t either," said Banana. "Of course, I do see a couple of problems with that plan. Orange, if you ever wanted to leave again, you’d be stuck inside, and if Apple and I wanted to join you, provided we were invited, of course, we would be stuck outside."

"You’re all welcome, of course," said Cookie, "but I believe it will take an act of God to bring us all together."

"I think you’re right," said Orange. "We should pray about it."

"That’s a good idea, Orange," said Apple.

"Count me in," said Banana.

"I don’t know why I never thought of it before," said Cookie.

So Orange led the prayer. "Dear God, I ask that you show us a way for Cookie to join us so she won’t be lonely anymore. In Jesus’ name, amen."

"Amen," said everyone, then they all just stood around, staring at each other, waiting for something to happen.

"Well, it was worth a try," Banana said after a few minutes. "Sorry it didn’t work out. I guess I’ll go home now."

With that, he started heading down the yellow tile road, back toward the skyscraper. But before he even seemed to move, a huge disc guided by a very large hand came out of the sky and landed right in front of him, blocking his way. Banana was struck with fear and awe. Just a moment later and it might have landed on him! Everyone watched as the giant hand glided back into the sky and disappeared. Then their gazes returned to the huge disc in the middle of the road.

"What is that?" asked a very puzzled Apple.

"I don’t know," said Orange. "Let’s go find out." Then she said to Cookie, "This may be our answer, although I don’t see how."

The three fruits gathered around the huge disc to get a closer look. It appeared to be a plate, and gathered near the edge were several strands of spaghetti who were spattered with some sort of red stuff, and they looked very weak and limp.

"This is supposed to be our answer to prayer?" scoffed Banana. "How can bums like this possibly help us?"

"Be nice, Banana!" Apple said sharply. "Even if they can’t help us, they still have feelings!"

"Yeah, and maybe they need our help," said Orange.

Banana looked toward the spaghetti strands and mumbled, "Sorry, guys. That wasn’t very nice of me, was it?"

The longest strand slowly shrugged. "We have been through worse," he said.

"Is there anything we can do to help you?" asked Orange. "Do you need anything?"

"Well, if I could just have a nice, cool bath, I’d feel a lot better," said Long Strand. Nods of agreement moved through the spaghetti. "Only problem is, none of us knows how to swim. We’d drown in the sink."

"I know how to swim," Apple said cheerfully. "I’d be glad to let you ride safely on my back while I do some laps. If you tie yourself to my stem, you could just float behind me and you wouldn’t even have to do any work!"

And so, one by one, Apple gave each strand of spaghetti a ride through the sink, so they all got clean and refreshed. As they were sitting near the jar, drying off, Orange explained Cookie’s dilemma to the spaghetti. "So you see," she said, "Banana and Apple could catapult me into the jar, but then I could never go home again, and everyone else would be stuck outside."

"Hmm," mumbled Long Strand, as he looked at Cookie and then up to her door. "I see your problem. You’ve been in there all alone for a long time, haven’t you, Cookie?"

"Yes," she tearfully replied. My brothers and sisters were taken away a long time ago and I have been here all alone ever since." She sighed. "You know, Long Strand, you and the rest of the spaghetti would be more than welcome to join us if we can ever find a way to get you all in here."

"Or you out," said Orange. "But hey, I believe the spaghetti WAS the answer to our prayer!"

"Huh?" Long Strand hadn’t even known they had prayed, much less that he and his fellow spaghetti might be an answer to prayer.

"Yeah, Orange," said Banana. "What are you talking about?"

"Well," she said, "Long Strand was able to hold on to Apple while she swam around, right?"

"Right," everyone agreed.

"And Apple could be catapulted into the jar just as easily as I could, right?"

"Right."

"So, what if we tie all the spaghetti together and tie Long Strand to Apple’s stem, then I jump on Banana and we’ll catapult Apple into the jar. Cookie can wrap herself in the spaghetti, and since some of the spaghetti will be left hanging out of the jar, Banana and I can pull them until both Apple and Cookie are free!"

"Wow, Orange!" cried Cookie. "What a great idea!"

"Yeah!" said Apple. "Then we can have a party!"

"Hooray!" shouted Cookie. "I can go outside! And I have lots of new friends!"

"Yay!" shouted everyone. "Hooray!"

The spaghetti began to tie itself together and Long Strand took hold of Apple’s stem once again. Apple rested on Banana and Orange jumped on his other end, sending Apple and the spaghetti into the cookie jar. Cookie wrapped herself in the spaghetti, and Banana and Orange pulled them out of the jar, and they tumbled unharmed to the countertop below.

Suddenly, the giant hand came back out of the sky and took the plate where the spaghetti had been. Everyone watched as it glided to the sink, where the plate sank into the water, and the hand disappeared back into the sky.

"It looks like you guys saved our lives," said Long Strand. "How can we ever repay you?"

"You already have," said Cookie.

"Definitely," Orange agreed. "Now let’s party!"

The fruit, the cookie and the spaghetti danced and played together for hours, and remained friends for a long time.

And so, the prayer was answered. God used everyone to bring about His will, and everyone was better off than they had even imagined possible, because God "...is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us." (Eph. 3:20, NKJV)

THE END

Disclaimer: Any resemblance of the characters in this story to those found in a certain vegetable-related series is purely coincidental, as I had no knowledge of said vegetables or their yellow tile countertop at the time of this writing, but was in fact inspired by my own yellow tile countertop and kitchen layout.