We were listening to the radio yesterday on the way to my niece's birthday party. My kids wanted to listen to music, I wanted to listen to a sermon. I won. I'm the driver. Music could come later (which, of course, it did...) The man talking was speaking about Christmas miracles, particularly the ones in the Christmas story. His voice is a little on the annoying side, so my kids kept asking me to switch it! I agreed with them, yes, his voice is a little annoying, but, I told them, I want so badly to listen to this topic. Miracles have happened to us. We seem to need them regularly! They conceded again.
The man spoke first about the miracles from some classic Christmas stories, like, It's a Wonderful Life, with Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy Stewart's character, George Bailey, is looking for a miracle as he's fallen on hard times. He prays, "Father in Heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there....can you show me the way...I'm at the end of my rope....show me the way!" What a powerful scene, especially for Hollywood. You can feel Bailey's pain, his sincere and desperate desire to hear from God, begging Him to be real...please be real. Watch the clip here...it's just a minute or so long.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54TQIE-DLmU
We've been there before. Seems we are there a lot. And this week was no exception. Were we at the end of our rope? Not the way we've been before, but in a way. There were just so many needs and money was coming in, today actually, but it wasn't going to come in fast enough. One small thing that particularly bothered me was that I wasn't going to be able to get all the things I needed for my daughter's birthday breakfast tradition of crepes. Who cares, I thought? That is such a minor thing in the big picture. Her birthday was yesterday, on Thursday. I was starting to wonder what was going to happen on Monday and Tuesday. I also was aware of some significant bills that needed to be paid, not to mention the fact our lower, bigger oven had died, leaving us with a small upper oven (thank goodness we had that still!) to cook small items like cookies or casseroles. It wasn't going to fit a turkey and I had 17 people hoping for turkey on Sunday! So many thing swirling around in my mind. Where do you go at a time like that? The psalms....always so good.
So there we were reading anyway, so I gathered the kids, even though we were on Christmas holidays, and I read Psalm 34.
A few of my favourite verses from that psalm were verse 4, "I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears." I had to keep repeating that verse to myself. I would actually say during the day, "I'm not afraid. He's delivered me from all my fears", just in case I had forgotten! "Those who look to Him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed." (vs. 5) We love paying our bills! We love having a good reputation, especially with those we actually see face to face. Our new dentist is like my new bff, along with his receptionist. They really love our family because, a) we're there ALL the time. b) We bring them a lot of business. c) For some reason, even the little ones don't fuss about needles, drills, or ANYTHING! The hygienist will go on and on about how happy she is to work on our kids. That's great! But, as much as they love us, they also love to be paid....we owed them a big chunk of money and I really wanted them to get paid. I didn't want to be ashamed about that. They weren't upset with us. They knew we were going to pay them. I just didn't want more time to go by. I started praying that verse, "May our faces never be ashamed."
Then, the best verse ever....verse 6..."This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them." We sat there as a family and prayed those words back to God, "Hear us cry to you. Save us from all of our troubles."
"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger, BUT, those who seek the Lord LACK NO GOOD THING." Hmmmmm....what counts as no good thing? We talked about it, did we need a new oven? Was that a necessity? Not really. We were making it work. What about food? Well, food is good! Did we have to have crepes? No, we could eat toast and eggs. No problem. What about a turkey? We didn't even have the extra money for a turkey. No big deal. We had a ham in the freezer that we could make work. What about snow tires for the car? Well, that seemed like a thing we should have, but pricey. What about paying our bills? Definitely a priority. Heat for the house? Our oil tank was running on fumes. It costs a lot of money to get that thing filled and we were at rock bottom in the tank. So we decided, God will determine whether or not it is something we "lack" and if it is a "good thing".
We were feeling so encouraged, at least I was! The next verse was perfect, "Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." I explained to them, "It's great if you learn to cook, clean, organize a home, run a car, get smart, but the thing I most want you to learn is the fear of the Lord." It was true. So again, we stopped, we prayed every word from that psalm as it all applied to our family so much, especially that day. It was Tuesday. Then, the first miracle happened....
Miracle one - RM called me Tuesday at some point in the day and said, "Hey! I got the small contract I had bid on...!" "What?! That's great!" I said, always thrilled when he gets work!
Miracle two, then happened. "You'll never believe this....they're paying in advance!" "What?!" I exclaimed again! That rarely, if not, never, happens. This contract was also a shot in the dark. It wasn't something RM thought he would get as he had bid high on it and doubted he would be awarded the contract. But he was! High bidder and all!
This is the thing, the amount he was going to be paid would cover the entire dentist bill, a tank of fuel, a new oven, and all the groceries, not just for my daughter's birthday, but also for Christmas. The question was would the money come in time...! Well, I'm happy to say, it came into the account on "Birthday Eve", miracle 3. Off we went, picked out a new oven, some groceries, and made plans to pay for all the other things we needed to pay the next day....whew!
But, it doesn't end there. I got a text last night, just as I was heading to bed, "You home? Can I stop by?" "Sure, I'm heading to bed early....when?" "Ten minutes." "Ok!" Sure enough, my friend popped in with a box of food. What was that all about? She knew we were hosting my friend and her 6 kids for Christmas (the one in the middle of the divorce) and she decided she would bring us Christmas dinner....enough food for all of us. I explained how God had already taken care of us in such an amazing way that week and we were in a much better place, but she said, "You'll need it." And, I supposed it was true as this other family was going to be with us not just on Christmas, but throughout that next week as well. The thing about food is you always need it! Especially with 17 people, 9 of them being boys/men and loving food! Isn't that just the Lord though? Giving me what I need....and then some?????
That was when it really struck me. We had been looking for our "Star" earlier on that week, on the Monday I'd written about that. I just thought that had to do with church. But then I realized God was giving me a Star to follow even by having those groceries to delivered. He was showing me, "Having this family at your place, in your lives, is what you are supposed to be doing." Receiving the groceries made me realize I'm not the only one serving this family. I am not doing this alone. This has become a Christian community effort. Even as I left my sister's yesterday, she passed me gifts for their kids. Amazing. God was using other believers as my Star. He showed me, "I will supply all you need." Because sometimes it occurs to us, "I don't think we can do this much longer....it is costing us a fortune in food!" But God has provided continually. My mom has dropped off food. My friend often comes with food people have given her, or food gift cards. None of these kids are hungry or lacking any "good thing"!
We can honestly say, we've "tasted and seen that the Lord is good". We are amazed at the Christmas miracles we're a part of. We can be like the psalmist and say, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles." Praise God.
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