All of us come to points in our lives where we have to fully rely on God and I will be the first to admit that it is not always the most comfortable place to be.
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to talk to my Dad about being at one of these points in my life right now and in his naturally clever but extremely relevant way, he told me a story I pray will always stay with me. This is his story…
One day I was really struggling with how I was going to provide for you, your mom, your brother, and your sister. You all were much younger at this time and things were just starting to get a little tight financially. I can still remember thinking about bills having to be paid, groceries needing to be bought, clothes needing to be purchased, lunch money to be paid, gas to be put in the cars, and school supplies still coming our way. And now on top of all this, as if things weren’t already piling up, the battery needing to be replaced in the truck.
I remember pulling into Auto Zone to somehow purchase a new battery, wondering how we could afford to purchase the battery right now and knowing the money could be spent somewhere else while still knowing we had to have the battery in order to get back & forth to work in order to have money for the other things we needed, all the while asking God how are we going to make this happen. Could He really provide for all of us? Can I really trust You to take care of us?
And it was in this moment as I parked the car in the parking spot, I looked out the truck window to see a birds drinking in a puddle of water. All the birds flew away except one who stayed to drink. He looked up just enough to notice I was there and then he put his head back in the puddle to drink. He sipped a little bit and then looked up at me again, only to put his head back down and continue to drinking. Then one last time he looked up at me again, only to say as an answer to my prayer, ”Well, what do you think….”
And God’s spirit immediately came over me as my mind went to Jesus words in Scripture, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:26-27)
I looked back at the bird and again it is as if he said, “Well, what do you think… Of course God is going to provide.” And right there in the parking lot of Auto Zone, God’s unmistakable peace overwhelmed me and I knew everything was going to be ok.
As you can see, my Dad always has this unusual way of really putting things into perspective for me. This isn’t to say everything from this point on was ever really easy, but at least Dad knew that no matter the circumstances everything was still going to be ok.
What’s funny is that growing up my brother, sister, and I never really knew things were ever really this hard. My parents just never let it get it to them to the point of us seeing how difficult things really were. As far as we knew, we had everything we ever needed!
I think this is where God wants all us to be in our lives. He wants all of us fully relying on Him while at the same time having the mind of a child, or maybe even a bird, and knowing that everything is going to be ok.
Where are you today? How is God telling you that you can really trust Him?
If you are in the place that I am still in right now, or where my Dad was so many years ago, maybe what we need to do is just look out the window and see what the birds are up to. Maybe it is in the place that we CAN fully rely on God as our Heavenly Father to provide everything we ever really need!
Everything really is going to be ok.
ps. I love you Daddy! And I thank you & Momma for the way you have always succeeded in taking care of Candace, Grayson, and me. It is amazing to know I really do have the best parents in the world all because of the faith you have in YOUR Heavenly Father and the ways in which He will always provide for us.
And thank you, again, for always reaffirming and encouraging me in knowing that He has always taken care of us, which is how we can know He is still going to take care of us in the future.
