Last month I bought a bedside lamp for myself. I picked out a lovely one made of wood and recycled paper with bamboos painted on it that glow with the warm light. “That’s the one I want”, I told the lady at the night bazaar in my basic Thai. When she handed me the lamp I realized that I had to put it together myself. Challenge accepted!
I got back home and pulled it out of my bag. Let's do this! I had all the screws and planks of wood laid out on my table, except… no screwdriver. Improvise, I thought. I went into my kitchen and pulled out a fork from the drawer. This had to do it. I was wrong. It really wasn’t as easy as I hoped for it to be. Nonetheless, this lamp just had to be conquered tonight.
I struggled to hold the pieces together as I attempted to screw it in with my fork. I pulled out my frying pan, because, who needs a hammer? Bang! Bang! Then a little more fork work. The perfectionist in me died a little that night but it was as good as it was going to get. Good enough for one night.
The next morning while I visited some friends who live in my building I checked if they had a screwdriver to lend me but we didn’t find one. “Seven Eleven to the rescue!”, I reassured myself. I carried on with my day, ran a couple of errands and completely forgot about buying a screwdriver. For dinner I was invited to another friend’s house for a Russian meal, which was delicious, by the way. As soon as I walked in, my friend handed me something sparkly saying, “This is for you”. I looked down at it and I was stunned. She gave me a sparkly screwdriver!
Firstly, who gives anyone a screwdriver? Secondly, where do you find sparkly screwdrivers? She didn’t even ask if I needed one, just declared this was for me. I knew this was another love note from God, custom-made for me with a note on it saying, “Maria, I’ve got you!”.
One of the many lessons that God has tenderly taught me is that money doesn’t sustain me. Of course, it’s the tool that He pays my bills in, but it is Yahweh Jireh who sustains me. He supplies all my needs, according to his sparkling riches in glory. The very essence of God’s being is to love and give. If God gives as much consideration to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think He’ll attend to us, take pride in us and do His best for us? What I’m trying to do here is to get us to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting rather respond to God’s giving. We already know God and how He works. We don’t need to worry about missing out; all our everyday human concerns will be met.
Earlier this evening, I withdrew some money from the ATM to pay my rent. I had saved some extra for myself and also to clear some other bills and so I decided to withdraw everything together. When I got back home I sat down to check my email and found one from my bank. I was charged a 20% fee for that rather large transaction. My heart sank. It took me all of 40 minutes to go back to the story of my sparkly screwdriver, pull up my sunken heart and write this blog.
I don’t know what quite happened with that transaction. I will speak to my bank soon. However, in this moment I choose to hand it over to God because He knows what’s going on. What better way to acknowledge Him as God than to just let go and let Him. He already has a plan. He isn’t startled like me. God has provided, is providing and unquestionably will provide in the future.
“Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.” - Psalms 34:10
Photo Credit :Flickr
It's beautiful...in this case a testimony follows a test..well written 🙂 with love from Joy..
Thank you Umesh. Glad you enjoyed reading it. 🙂
Really touched by these words Maria! Bless you, you lovely lady of God! Keep trusting and He will see you through! Jehovah Jirah He is! ????
Thank you Uncle Rick, you are always so encouraging. Lots of love. -M
Thank you Maria! This blessed me today. Such a good reminder that God displays His love in the details of our lives. We sometimes miss it. You are truly living the life of faith we are all called to live!-sharon
Thank you Sharon. Your words are so encouraging and mean so much to me. 🙂
Very beautifully written.
Thank you Linda. 🙂