Two days ago I wrote a devotional for our homeschool group, always trying to encourage the moms to press on and to remember, "This I know, God is for me." I used that verse from Psalm 56 and the theme I had written about before, "A Year Without Fear". I specifically had mentioned the idea that if we are thankful, then we can just sit back and watch the big and small miracles that will unfold.
That same day I had written in this blog about groceries and my attempts for this year to buckle down on a whole new level, writing about the specific steps I'm attempting to take.
That day, after having written both posts, I wasn't expecting any miracles to happen, but happen they did.
First, I ran into my daughter at the library (it's so funny to "run" into your daughter at the library! Now that she has her own car, I don't keep track of her as much.....) She had just come from piano lessons where she still goes for a 2 1/2 hour lesson each week. She drives into see the same teacher we've had since she was 8 or 9. This teacher is not a Christian, though we've shared with her our faith when she lets us, is a vegetarian, divorced, still single, and on top of it all is very talented and kind. She seems to love our family and has always gone to extreme efforts to accommodate us, even driving our way when we had all the kids in lessons. She's also extremely educated and provides an amazing piano education for our daughter which is also why we still drive all that way back into our old town.
All that to say, when I saw my daughter, she said, "You'll never believe what I have for you...." I didn't know what she could possibly be talking about. "Five bags of groceries!" "What?!" "All vegetables!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It's funny, though, my first reaction was, "Did she think we were in need? Why would she do that?" I immediately felt humbled, but then curiousity kicked in....I had to know what prompted this!
It's really funny. I don't think she even knows why she did it! I think God made her do it! She told my daughter how she normally does a big vegetable stew for herself which I guess she then uses or freezes to use throughout the month or week (not sure). In the process of cooking, she overspiced her stew somehow and had to add more water making the stew way more than she needed. But, she still had all these vegetables and for some reason didn't need them anymore....my question is, WHY did she buy so many vegetables in the first place? It just made no sense...even her explanation to my daughter made no sense. I'm thinking God told her to buy all the groceries, she just doesn't know it! However, in the process, she had all these vegetables she couldn't use and she knew they would go bad, so she said she thought of us! Five bags of fantastic, fresh vegetables...delivered on the very day I'd written about groceries and how I planned on making them stretch and stay way below budget. I would call it a miracle. Never in all the years we've known her has she done this. It was such an unusual, unexpected gift. I still marvel. The bonus is she included really nice vegetables, too, the expensive ones, like asparagus, not to mention bags and bags of carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, onions, garlic, celery...on and on.. I am amazed. Suddenly, I'm in a quandary myself...I now have more vegetables than I know what to do with! What a great problem to have. I thank God for grocery blessings.
It's funny my next story is tied into that same piano teacher and has to to do with another piano teacher! The piano teacher my daughter uses is amazing, however, she's too amazing! She is quite costly, though worth it, so we made the hard call several years ago to stop using her for all of our kids and instead we would just spend the money on the oldest girl as she was showing the most talent. It was such a sad day for me to tell her we wouldn't be able to use her anymore for the other kids. I questioned God so much on that. I felt we would never find a replacement.
Meanwhile, God was orchestrating a new piano connection..... A long time ago, over a year ago, I met a woman through a series of connections and I had her over for a visit. Then I ran into her in a grocery store (another theme that is floating through both stories!). Something made me ask her about piano lessons and where she gets her kids taught. I was in fact advertising my daughter as a potential teacher for her kids, but it turned out she already had a teacher. I've relied on my oldest daughter for some time to teach my kids and she was and she would, but I just can't pay her what she deserves and it just wasn't fitting in her schedule if it was for free. Funny how money motivates a person to work! It was hard for me to not feel panicky that my kids weren't getting the music education that my older kids had. I really had to choose to relax. I would tell others, trying very hard to really believe it, "If God thinks my kids need a music teacher, He'll bring one." I didn't know what that would look like, but that's what I would say. Deep down, however, I was wondering if my kids would ever learn. I was happy they were teaching themselves guitar and ukelele on youtube, but I wasn't sure if you could do that with piano.
Back to the grocery store conversation....she mentioned she had a great local piano teacher and, this was the amazing thing, who only charged basically pennies a lesson (I won't say the exact amount in case she gets inundated with calls!). That's right, it's not a typo, only a few pennies a lesson. She didn't have access to piano lessons as a child due to lack of finances (she came from a large family of 9 kids!) and only got her music education once she was a mom with two kids. As a result, she doesn't want people to feel inhibited by lack of funds, but instead wants all kids to have access to a music education. But, get this, strictly for the purposes of using music for God's glory. I haven't heard a music teacher say those words before. AND, on top of all that, she lives less than 5 minutes away from us, so no, she doesn't come to my home, but when she only lives 5 minutes away, I think I can handle the commute! We start next week!
These two miracles are not the little miracles I told the homeschool moms to watch for, no, these are the BIG ones! I had no idea they were coming and just sat back in awe as they unfolded before my eyes. I had written the phrase from Psalm 56, "This I know, God is for me..." I had tried to meditate on it all that day and into the next and had told the homeschool moms to do the same. Instead of listening to the lie, "God is against me," I truly tried to fight back and remember, "No! He is FOR me!" Sometimes when I write about what I know about God, such as that phrase "This I know, God is for me....", I'm not sure what it will always look like, how that will show itself. I can never write the story myself, "How will God show me He is for me this week?" And then, things like this happen and I say to myself, "Oh...that's it...He IS for me! He really is!" Did I need to see these miracles this week to show me? No, but wow, does it ever help! I have prayed for help in grocery planning, budgeting, savings, for years. I have prayed for a piano teacher for the younger guys for years. I have worked at really trusting Him in His timing. I have tried not to worry, tried not to run in front of Him. And then this, two huge blessings on the same day of writing about God's faithfulness and how we can trust Him that He is for us. I love God's timing. I love how He hand picks specific blessings that are impossible to work out humanly speaking. They have His fingerprint all over them. I can only sit here in awe of His goodness to me and my family and thank Him for these tangible ways He shows me HE. IS. FOR. ME.
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