The Grocery Test, Truck Angels, New Creations

The weekend is over and brought many fun opportunities for food, fellowship and fun with church and other friends we know.  It brought unique answers to prayer, too.

All last week I really needed to go grocery shopping.  I kept being told to put it off if I could as we were still waiting for moenty to show up, but inevitably the kids would open the fridge and say, "Uh, Mooooom....there's NOTHING to eat!  When are you going to go grocery shopping???"  "Soon!"  I would shout back.  But then I had to come up with something for them to eat!  The creative juices seemed to flow last week and meal after meal, snack after snack, I came up with something and we got through the whole week without shopping.  By Friday, though, I knew I really needed to go shopping.  Thankfully, on the last day of the week, one of the cheques we were owed came in - the insurance cheque from the accident!  Great timing!  Then, more hay money!  Off we went to the grocery store to celebrate!

What is the lesson learned there?  Lesson #3?  He is Jehovah-Jireh, God who provides. Just like the story in my little daughter's reader that I had just read with her last week, God provided the ram for Abraham, stuck in the bushes, just at the last moment before he was about to kill his son Isaac.  The grade one reader worded it like this, "God wanted to know if Abraham loved God more or his son more."  That was why he was given the test.  Abraham passed the test with flying colours, though it was no easy test. And then God provided.  I kind of feel like God was giving me a test last week, too - the "No Grocery Test".  How would I respond?  Right now we are dealing with two of our children in this exact area. We are watching their responses to almost everything we say and almost inevitably they respond negatively or argumentatively.  It seems to be their pattern and now it is our job to break it.  I suppose I could have pouted with God or towards my husband.  I found it to be a great way to use up stuff in my cupboard that I needed to go through and finally clear out.  I lean towards being a positive person anyway, but that doesn't mean it was easy.  I still get those anxious thoughts if I let them enter in. I knew hay money was coming, but it was mostly spoken for.  I didn't know the insurance money was coming.  God provided "ram" after "ram" all week.  I was able to make healthy, tasty meals and no one starved.  Thank you Lord!

Saturday was a very snowy day - not a good day to be out driving and delivery hay.  I hoped RM and the boys would be ok.  During this time of prayer and fasting, I've been taking every moment I get on my own where there is just myself in a room doing whatever task to just pray.  I go through a list in my mind of what I'm praying for and just lift each concern up to the Lord.  I was at the sink cleaning, and praying, when I looked outside and saw what looked like my husband and the boys walking down the street towards the house - no truck, no hay trailer to be seen.  I knew immediately what had happened.  They were stuck in a snowbank at the end of the road.  It had already happened to my daughter this winter.  It's a tight, slippery corner and with the weather and the weight of the trailer, he probably couldn't make the turn.  I knew there was nothing I could do, so I just started to pray. Within seconds of me praying, I saw another truck drive up and stop to talk to my husband.  He rolled down the window I found out later, and asked if he could help pull them out, "I have a chain," he said.  No one else was out on the roads that day, it was so bad.  I hadn't seen any other traffic the whole time I was at the window.  Within minutes, he had pulled my family out of the snowbank and off they went for load #2 of hay.  I couldn't believe it.  I don't carry a chain in my van, do you?  God's amazing provision once again, but this time with a truck angel.  I guess I needed to see that He cares about all our needs.  What was really neat was that it happened right before my very eyes!  He could have gotten stuck out of my sight, but it was right where I could see him.  I actually watched the miracle unfold before me.  He must have known I needed to see Him answer my prayers "live"!  Very cool!

Meanwhile, this whole time, I've been in communication with my friend who is also fasting for herself and her family.  She's experiencing God in little and big ways already.  Hearing from her as each day goes by has been another tangible way to hear from God as I get to experience how He can simultaneously care for me and my family as well as her family.  Sometimes I think I am the only one who exists on this planet, that is how well God takes care of me, but He is running the whole earth!

Sunday was the first time our whole family had been able to be at church together as a family for a long time it seemed.  We've had viruses or bad weather that have allowed only some of us to be at church this winter.  It was good to hear the Word of God, to sing, to pray, to hear other's requests. We heard testimonies of good friends, as they were becoming members, so they shared what God had done in their lives to bring them to himself.  I have known these people for 15 years and saw the struggles they went through before becoming true disciples of Christ.  It was such an encouragement to hear their story and to have them share it in front of all of us.  It was a great reminder of how God is in the business of transforming lives.  They are not the same couple I knew 15 years ago.  God took this family through a journey that has had lots of ups and downs.  But He grabbed hold of them, pruned them and then said, "You are a new creation."  Now, the fruit in their lives, their marriage, their children, is amazing!  They are now expecting their 8th (though they had previously decided to stop at 3, then the husband had a "reversal" and it worked, really well!)  My husband is now in business with this other husband and we are expecting great things to come out of this partnership/friendship. We're both committed to praying together during this period of Lent, for much of the same things. We plan on trying to meet, if not weekly as couples, then at least in our own homes as husband and wife, on our knees before the Lord.  This has to be Lesson #4 - God is in the business of transformation.  I'm looking to see how He will fulfill this in all the areas we are specifically praying.

So there you have it!  Lots of lessons being learned, many blessings in the process.  One of my favourite moments this weekend had to be when Jen and Roger made their first "public appearance" at our church potluck.  "The Big Reveal", people were calling it!  It was sooooooo adorable.  I saw Roger and said in the sweetest voice I could, "Hiiii Roooger!"  I was teasing him as he was clearly dopey, in love, with Jen on the other side of the room, just as loopy!  He said to me, "I'm SOOO happy to be here!  As a couple!!!!!"  It was so sweet.  I just loved it.  They make such a great couple, everyone can see it and have never seen Roger like this in his life.  Jen, people don't know as well, but I'm guessing it's the same with her.  God is so good!  Bringing together unlikely people, blessing them beyond measure.  It was the icing on the cake for me this weekend.  We are anxiously waiting for more news from this sweet couple.......