Needle in a Haystack Part 7
June 29, 2026
Needle in a Haystack Part 7
For me and many others I have asked, the fortune cookie is one of the outstanding features of a meal at an Asian restaurant. Even when I am full of delectables and have no room whatsoever for dessert, there is somehow always room for the fortune cookie.
The fortune cookie is more than a sweet and crunchy ending to the meal. It is a mysterious opening into the wide world of chance, hope, and imagination. In one sentence, that tiny slip of paper can provoke conversations, speculation, laughter, and journeys of thought we never expected to take.
One recent fortune told me, “You will meet someone in December who will change your life.” Another said, “A true friend is like family.” But my most memorable came to me in the 1080s while in Montreal. It simply read: “Never do that again.” I will not go into all the thoughts that “advice” took this Ego Six.
Years ago, at a restaurant in my hometown called House of Chen, I had an encounter with a fortune cookie that taught me a spiritual lesson I have never forgotten. After the meal, the server brought Lark and me two fortune cookies on a tray. We chose our cookies.
“You go first,” I said.
She cracked open the little shell and read aloud that she would soon go on an exotic journey. At that season of our lives, such a trip was highly unlikely, but even imagining it lifted our spirits. For a few moments, we traveled there in our minds.
“Now it’s your turn,” she said.
I eagerly cracked open my cookie — but astonishingly, there was no fortune inside. Absolutely empty.
I looked carefully through both halves of the cookie, then around the table and floor, I was convinced the slip must have escaped unnoticed. But there was nothing. In all my years of receiving fortune cookies, I had never encountered one without a fortune.
As the server walked by, I said with an alarm reserved for the first world: Can you help me…, my fortune cookie did not have a fortune inside.” Without missing a beat, she replied, “That’s okay. No news is good news.”
Over the years, I have told that story many times, because it has become strangely dear to me. Though I did not receive what I expected, I received something far more memorable along with a laugh each time it comes to mind.
Sometimes the absence of what we hoped for carries its own hidden gift. The witty server reminded me that I was not at all deprived. I had simply received a form of good news that, at first glance, was unrecognizable.
No fortune in a fortune cookie is rare, like finding a needle in a haystack. The spiritual life is often like that. We pray for answers, signs, clarity, or reassurance — and sometimes heaven seems silent. Yet maybe silence itself can occasionally be hidden mercy. In the absence of what we want, we develop things that a ready answer would prevent. That is good news.
Spiritual Practice and Inquiry
In your spiritual formation, how might “no news” sometimes be interpreted as good news?
Prayer
Dear God, For the unpredictable, the rare, the needle in the haystack, the glitch that becomes grace — I am thankful. Help me recognize Your hand in it all. Amen.
