Last week was a bit stressful. Garfield was working long hours trying to finish up a project, and it's no secret that I don't do well when I'm playing the part of a single mom. So by the end of the week, I was looking forward to some down-time with my family.
But no such luck. I got a call from Garfield on Friday afternoon, asking me to call him a tow truck. He was stranded out in Boerne with a truck that wouldn't start. Our only vehicle was out of commission, and I started to panic. (You'll recall that when our car died in November, we had to say goodbye forever.) Thoughts of us being on foot for who-knows-how-long were crossing through my mind, and I sort of lost it. I was short with my children. I was short with my husband. I was short with the insurance man, who practically insisted that the town of Boerne must be near Houston somewhere. I was short on faith.
And even with my faith as small as a mustard seed that afternoon, God was still as faithful as ever to answer prayers. Within hours of sending out an email to alert our church family of the situation, we'd had several offers to borrow vehicles for as long as we needed them. And as it turned out, our truck was repaired in record time--only half a day. After a replaced fuel pump, it was back up and running again, and we praised God that we had the money for the repairs.
And then the blessings continued to pour forth. We made it to church on Sunday, only to be handed a check from someone who wanted to help out with our repair costs. Get this...without knowing how much our repair expenses were, they had already made out the check for the exact amount. Well, ok, it was within three dollars. We were awed and humbled by the generous gift, and the cheerfulness of the giver. You're not going to tell me that God doesn't provide perfectly for His children.
We've not yet been married seven years, and we alredy have dozens of stories just like this one, telling of the surprising, unexpected ways the Lord has been so good in meeting our needs. And He usually does it very precisely, in a way that is so perfect it makes us shake our heads and laugh. He leaves no doubt in our minds that His hand is all over the blessing. We'll receive a random "refund" check in the mail for the same amount of a bill we weren't sure we could pay, or someone we hadn't heard from in years will send us money as a gift. Just the other day we got a check returned to us with a notice stating that our parking ticket had already been paid...but neither of us had paid it, and no one else knew about it.
There are no coincidences. The Lord provides for His people, and even when we're down and out, and we can't possibly imagine how we're going to make ends meet, the solution is already in the works. Just because we can't come up with a solution doesn't mean there isn't one. It just means we have to trust in the One who has all the answers, all the resources, and all the power to make anything possible.
5 comments:
In our fifteen years of marriage, we too have experienced many situations where God provided so faithfully and so perfectly....
Yet, we still go through moments of "little faith". When will we ever learn!
Thank you, Stephanie for sharing of God's provisions for your family!
Amen.
I love hearing these stories! :) I'm so glad for you.
Stephanie,
Your post was such an encouaragement! Right now we are 30 days away from our jobs ending (sub teaching) with no job opportunities. We are only a month away from my husband being ordained and being sent out to raise money, start and inner city church and school. We are only 4 months away from our baby being born. And months behind on some of our bills. All this seems so contridictory and hard, but we are trying to hard to hang on it faith believing that God will take care of us and provide for our needs as He has the last year with only sub teaching job. It is so encouraging to hear of faith in another's life and inspires me to keep pressing on!
Sanders, I'm so glad you were encouraged and edified. We have certainly been in your situation (or several similar), and I know it's hard to hang on. It really is. Our human limitations have trouble believing that God really can work outside the expected or typical means. But press on, because you already know that you're in His hands and that He won't let you slip.
And just think of it this way: what fun would it be to be old and have no stories to tell your children and grandchildren of God's grace during times of trial, hardship, etc? No one is encouraged by another's testimony if it's "our lives have always been easy".
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