Christmas has come and gone. We are now on the final day of 2016. Christmas week was extra busy as we had our usual visiting with family, but we also hosted another family, so that added a little more activity to the week. Plus, our daughter turned 13. We had a special celebration/ceremony for her which added even more to the week! Yet, God was faithful.
At one point, I was in the grocery store (I'm in there a lot!) and I was feeling a certain amount of financial pressure mounting. I knew I shouldn't have felt that way. We'd just been so taken care of by that miracle of the contract and the extra food given to me by my friend, but Satan knows where my weak points are and, funnily enough, I'm often attacked the most when I'm in the grocery store. It is there that I hear the words, "You can't afford this. You don't have enough money for that. Are you sure that you will be able to buy all this? You are probably not going to have enough money. You should really feel a little more anxious." All those thoughts were swirling in my mind. When I start to hear those thoughts, I usually start praying right there in the store, as I walk the aisles. I'll pray for wisdom. I'll pray that God will help me not to be anxious and instead, help me to make wise choices. Yet, Satan, is relentless. God heard my prayers right there in the store and sent an angel just at that moment.
A lady I know, but not that well, walked past me. She didn't see me or recognize me because she was focused on her own shopping. It occurred to me to not say anything, but I always do, even if it is to someone I hardly know. So sure enough, I said, "Hi!" She immediately recognized me and we stopped to chat. My cart was overflowing and Christmas was only a day or two away. I was clearly shopping for either a lot of people or a really big meal! She asked what I was doing for Christmas. I explained how we'd be at my in-laws one day, my parents' another. I wasn't going to say anything about hosting the other family. I'm not trying to be a hero. I didn't want it to be seen that way, yet, that was what we were doing on Christmas day, so I thought, I'll tell her! I simply explained we were having a family that was going through a hard time and left it at that. Off she went, off I went.
A few minutes later, she found me in a different aisle. I thought maybe we were just shopping for the same things. But no, she came up to me and stuffed $20 into my hand saying, "Use this for the other family you are having over. I know it isn't much, but I hope it helps a little." What??!! Was she reading my mind, seeing all those thoughts? Or did God just give her a small prompting that said, "This woman needs tangible encouragement to show her I am taking care of her! She seems to need a lot of reminders....all the time...so go to her...now!" The kind woman immediately saw tears in my eyes as I couldn't believe what was happening. I had already had two awesome miracles that week. Am I so weak that God had to send another one? Yup. I am. That just goes to show how well God knows me!
Did $20 help my huge bill that day? Not really, but that wasn't the point. She could have given me $1 and I would have felt the same sense of encouragement. It was God's way of saying, "When will you trust me? I'm trying to show you I will provide. I will take care of you. I can send someone to you in the grocery store. Someone you don't even know hardly at all! Don't you get it yet?!"
I came home and told the kids the story of the grocery angel. They must think I'm making this up.
The next day, I meant to pick up apples from our neighbour who owns an orchard. But it was Christmas Eve. They were probably closed. I wasn't even sure if they still had apples in their warehouse. The thought went in my head and then out. Didn't have time to act on it. A short while later, my son walked in the room and said, "Some guy just dropped off a bunch of apples. Said he lives down the street, 'Merry Christmas'?" What?! Again?! This neighbour has never been to our house, has never dropped off apples in the whole time we've lived here. I didn't even know if he knew where we lived or who we were. What prompted him to do that?! I didn't get a chance to see him or thank him. An apple angel. I seem to be surrounded by them. I have used those apples all week for snacks for her kids, snacks for mine. They won't run out. I'm like the widow and her apples.
On Christmas afternoon, my friend and her kids arrived. She walked in and said, "Some lady handed me 50 bucks at a restaurant we stopped at for coffee!" A restaurant angel. This angel had seen my friend and her 4 boys and was touched because she had had boys, too. Something was prompted in her to give, maybe because my friend was out at a restaurant on Christmas morning, not at home opening gifts somewhere? Who knows, only God could prompt that. She had also just been denied gas money by her husband on that same day and can you imagine what the amount was he was supposed to give her? Yes, $50. God was clearly showing her He would provide EXACTLY what she needed through the actions of a complete stranger.
I told her what had happened to me that week, too. We had to stop and say to one another, "God is clearly trying to take care of us! Why are we so worried?"
On this last day of the year, I read many psalms. The psalmist asks over and over, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." (Psalm 42:11)
That has to be the theme of this past year and the message for the 2017. I have to remember that even though there are times when I will feel cast down and times when I will feel turmoil, I must remember how He was my salvation this past year, over and over. He will be my salvation in 2017 as well. I need only hope.
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