"Lord, could you send some grocery money, I prayed.
"And would you do it this week -- now?"
My husband was out of work, and for some reason I can't now
recall these many years later, he wasn't eligible for unemployment benefits.
Now we were scraping bottom. Our young children didn't understand why we never
had hamburger anymore, nor even their favorite vegetables. (Things were so bad
the town pigeons were beginning to look good as a food source, though it would
have been illegal to kill them. :o)
So I asked the only One who could help. He had several times
in the past and I knew He would again… I hoped. As a young mother, my faith
hadn't been tested a lot wasn't as strong as it was to be later. My faith was
beginning to waver at that time. My children had never gone hungry, but it
looked as if it might come to that if God didn't answer in the next couple of
days.
"Heavenly Father, we are no better than others who have
suffered in Your permissive will, so I don't mean to complain, but I'm scared.
I need an answer soon… please?"
A couple of hours later I got a call from my brother, an
invalid who had been paralyzed in a car wreck several years before. He asked
me to drive out to his house. "I want to give you your Christmas
present," he said, even though it was only Thanksgiving week.
He had plenty of time to sit and think on things so he
usually wanted to do things early -- but a whole month ahead? He lived several
miles out of town, and I only had enough gas in the car to get there. I
thought he would probably give me a few dollars, maybe $10 as that was his
usual gift. I was at least hoping for the same this year.
If the gift should be other than money, I'd have to ask him
for help to get back home. I really didn't want to. My pride, of course, and
he also lived on Social Security Disability benefits. It would also be very
hard to deny his request as he asked so very little of me. So I left the kids
with their father and drove out.
We had a short visit and then he gave me my
"Christmas" gift: $50 cash -- on the day before Thanksgiving! Fifty
dollars! Then, that much was like $200 or more today. Now I could buy both gas
AND groceries -- for two weeks!
Even though it was supposed to be a month-early Christmas
present and was given at Thanksgiving, I have never doubted that this was
really a just-right-on-time answer to prayer. My faith has grown since then,
of course, and now I can look back and see God's faithfulness in every
situation, good or bad..
Though my prayer was answered at Thanksgiving in the form of
a Christmas present, the most important gift ever given me was an Easter gift.
God gave His Son to die for my sin, but even that would have been in vain had
there been no resurrection.
I am so thankful I have a risen Saviour to honor this
Easter, the only One who ever conquered death and the grave, a God who not
only forgives sin but gives His children eternal life with Him in heaven.
He also loves us NOW and cares about the day to day things
in our lives. He proves it to us every day.
