I have to say that for most of my grown up years, even though I grew up in a Christian home, I could not comprehend God's love. I remember flying to Rota, Spain when I was in the Navy, going on deployment, and I read an entire book on the flight. It was a book about love. The entire first chapter was the author trying to help the reader understand God's love for us. The author had verses and even mantras that you could say to yourself in the mirror. But yet I couldn't really relate. It didn't feel personal.
That was 10 years ago.
This year, God has revealed His love for me in astounding ways. As children of God, when we grasp the extravagant love our Savior has for us, our whole life changes.
Time and time again, He has shown up all throughout this year in ways that were absolutely and undeniably Him. And to finish out the year, the Creator of the Universe showed up once again in such an amazing way.
It turns out that going out of business tends to drain you financially and as we closed the doors and cleaned out our space, our bank account got pretty cleaned out as well. We owned a franchise and had been told that as long as we followed all the closing procedues the legal department would release us from our franchise agreement with just a minimal fee. I had no idea what the fee would be but I figured I could work it out with them later. The key word here is later. I was ready to jump into Chriiiiiiistmaaaaas.
Well, it turns out they weren't thinking along the same lines. I got an email in mid-December stating that in order to be released from all the penalties that I should incur from breaking my franchise agreement, they would need to receive a certified check for $1000 by December 31, 2011.
Wo, wo, wo! (If you haven't seen the Patty Cake Cats youtube video, you must! Then you'll understand my use of ...) Wo, wo wo! I was not ready for that one. One thousand dollars in two weeks. We didn't have that! Panic set in. And then my dear husband reminded me that I had just shared at church about God's favor and how we need to change the way we speak because He always has our back.
Then I was like, oh yeah. That's right. I went in my prayer closet(the bathroom this time) prayed(cried) about it, and completely and totally gave it to God. I actually went from panic mode to not worrying. I can do all things through Christ.
Then, I reminded myself of the stone that Samuel set up. Here's what it says in 1 Samuel 7 verse 12... "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up... and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us."
God had brought me this far in this life-changing journey and for that moment in time I ceased to believe that He would continue to help me. Why would God leave me hanging at the very end? Why would He leave me at all?
He won't.
He never will.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Awesome song playing in the background - AWESOME SONG - "Always" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7L3m9jIcc
Ok, where was I. That song has a way of grabbing me.
$1000 that I didn't have. Right.
Well a few days after I got the email that threw me into panic mode, we received an unexpected check in the mail for $181.00. I was like, "Sweet:) Alright, 181 down 819 to go!"
Then another week passed, one week before my deadline, and I was starting to "figure something out."
Ha!
Please, do not forget. When you are a child of God, there are no coincidences.
This, my friends, is a picture of God's faithfulness.
"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:36
