People who eat all their vegetables make me nervous. For one thing, they haven’t experienced life. At least, not the dark side.

These lovers of green have never known the secret childish delight of sliding peas under their plate. Or, the skill of cautiously wedging broccoli under the dog’s lips. All deftly completed while maintaining parental eye contact.

As you’ve probably heard, "Vegetable Dodgers," who’ve mastered these clever procedures, often go on to greater things. Like being the President. Now we know why all presidents have dogs in the White House. But, most kids merely struggle through asparagus, string beans, and spinach, to reach adulthood. All the while knowing that some day, they can force vegetables on their offspring. That’s why average citizens have kids. And dogs, shortly thereafter.

But, the tragedy of it is that folks who actually ate their vegetables when they were children, grow up and want to produce more. They created county fairs to taunt the rest of us. Here, these green-thumb gardeners blatantly display vegetables the size of rocket ships.

Actually, it’s not uncommon to see children, white with fright, running around at the fair. Some people would try to tell us it’s from the carnival rides and greasy food. But we non-vegetarians know the truth.  For these pale youngsters, it’s related to the scary thought of having to surreptitiously tuck those homegrown green torpedoes under their plate. Or, the possibility of choking the family pet.

Years ago, when we were fresh from California, we weren’t accustomed to "super-sized" Northwest veggies. After all, we’d never seen anything bigger or greener than Bermuda grass pushing up through the concrete.

So one day, as I was fixing dinner, I casually complained to God that I was out of money and needed a green vegetable. Any decent mom, no matter where she’s from, knows the meal isn’t complete without some green things for her kids to shove around on their plate.

About 45 minutes after breathing that spur-of-the-moment prayer, the only person I knew in town showed up, clutching her homegrown spacecraft. Something she tried to pass off as a zucchini. Even the dog was in shock.

Well, we must have eaten from that thing, clear into the new millennium -- zucchini casserole, zucchini spaghetti, zucchini chip cupcakes. You name the recipe and we tried it. And at dinnertime, we were grateful. But to all of us, it began to feel like decades passing while the unrelenting vegetable sustained us until payday. And we were thankful. Except for the kids.

Even so, we learned a wonderful truth. Our Creator has abundant resources that He’s eager to share. On this particular occasion, a gigantic example of his attentiveness arrived, special delivery, and it looked like a grand-prize winner from the garden patch. The meaning was loud and clear. God promises to supply all of our needs. He’s concerned about the details in our lives, not just the big issues. No matter what is weighing on our heart, when we ask, God listens.

But, just a word of caution. Be careful what you ask for. God tends to answer in ways we never imagine. And our dog has the green between his teeth to prove it.