The Lord Cares
This past Sunday, our Community Group discussion with my ninth grade girls centered around the implications of God as Creator. We talked about the vastness of God and all that has been made, as well as His intimate knowledge of and specific, detailed care for individuals. The question was posed: What are some ways that you can see God's special/specific care for you? Anyone who's been around church for while knows that questions like that can often result in crickets chirping. We came up with some good responses, but they were all a bit generic. Why is it often so hard for us to remember specific instances of God's goodness or care for us? Probably, at least in my case, it is because we often fail to look for God's involvement in the day-to-day. Or maybe, even when we do notice his involvement, we do very little to commit it to memory. I think this is why the Psalmists talk so often of "meditating" on God's works; without a conscious effort at remembering, we humans are very quick to forget things.
To combat this issue of forgetfulness in my own life, I started a journal about a year ago. I titled it, "The Lord Cares." I started it during a season where money was particularly tight for us, but God was providing for us in amazing and often very unexpected ways. Rather than forget about all of those instances in a month or two, I was prompted by a Bible study I was doing at the time to write them all down. Each time God provided for us or showed his care in some other specific way, I would write it down; sometimes it's just a sentence or two, and other times it's a story. And page by page, the journal is filling up. My prayer is that God will grow my faith and my expectancy in Him as I see this record of his faithfulness grow and overflow and spill into the pages of more journals over the years, and I'm also prayerful that God will use this journal to one day increase faith in my children. How cool it will be for them to someday look and see all the ways God was faithful to their family! I love that they won't just hear Kevin and I saying that God is a promise-keeper, but we will be able to show them in this way.
Today I was able to add another entry in my journal, thanks to a dear friend, and ultimately thanks to a good God who really does care.
Here's today's little story:
When Jake was in college he went on a mission trip to Peru. He brought back for me, among other things, a little stuffed bear made with Alpaca fur. This little bear stayed tucked away in a box at the top of the closet for a while- in my "future kids" box. And then five years ago it became clear that Jake and I weren't going to have any future kids together. Since then, I have lived in 4 more places and that little bear made the move with me each time; though eventually he was living in the "I'm not sure what I'll do with this but I don't want to get rid of it" box. Then came sweet Hudson, two years ago today and I decided to put the little bear in his room. Hudson had very little interest in stuffed animals until recently, and he never had a comfort item like a blanket or pacifier either. But recently, he developed a particular affinity for the the little stuffed bear (who he's named "Soft Bear") and a stuffed Dalmatian (now named "White Puppy") from the Disney store. He's been sleeping with them every night, holding them in the car, setting them up and playing with them in the house. It's been fun to see him finally develop an interest in a specific item.
Today I was visiting my friend Monie's house and had parked along the street. When I went to get Hudson out of his car seat, he was asleep and holding Soft Bear. When I picked Hudson up to carry him into the house, the bear fell out of his hands and bounced off of my foot. I looked down and didn't see it anywhere. After moving the car and laying down to look in the gutter, we came to the unfortunate conclusion that it had bounced off my foot in just the right way and fell all the way down the storm drain.
Monie mentioned that she had once ventured down there through a manhole to retrieve a cat, but I was of course not going to ask her to do that. I have to admit though, that I was pretty crushed. Not only because Hudson had lost his favorite toy on his birthday but mainly because it was from Jake and that made it pretty irreplaceable. I tried to hide my disappointment (maybe not very well) from Monie, but on my way home I called Kevin to share how bummed I was about what had happened.
When Kevin got home from work tonight he told Hudson he had a birthday present for him and to my huge surprise, he pulled that silly little bear out of his pocket!
Apparently, Monie had called the fire department after I left her house this afternoon and explained the situation to them. Even more amazingly, a firefighter came to her house, cheerfully removed the manhole cover, and descended down the ladder to find that little bear at the bottom of the storm drain!
Thank you God for caring about the little things, and thank you Monie, for being such a caring friend! To those of you who know her, this story probably doesn't surprise you at all. The care that you show to so many people really is pretty extraordinary.
Soft Bear has since been rinsed off and had his hair brushed and blow-dried and is sleeping peacefully with Hudson tonight. I dont think I'll ever be able to look at that little bear again without being reminded of God's special and specific care for me.
How has God shown His specific care for you lately?
I'm praying for you and for myself that we recognize and respond to His care more and more frequently, in the ordinary and extraordinary ways that He cares for us all the time.
His grace towards us is always abounding.
Here's to learning to look for it,
Diana
To combat this issue of forgetfulness in my own life, I started a journal about a year ago. I titled it, "The Lord Cares." I started it during a season where money was particularly tight for us, but God was providing for us in amazing and often very unexpected ways. Rather than forget about all of those instances in a month or two, I was prompted by a Bible study I was doing at the time to write them all down. Each time God provided for us or showed his care in some other specific way, I would write it down; sometimes it's just a sentence or two, and other times it's a story. And page by page, the journal is filling up. My prayer is that God will grow my faith and my expectancy in Him as I see this record of his faithfulness grow and overflow and spill into the pages of more journals over the years, and I'm also prayerful that God will use this journal to one day increase faith in my children. How cool it will be for them to someday look and see all the ways God was faithful to their family! I love that they won't just hear Kevin and I saying that God is a promise-keeper, but we will be able to show them in this way.
Today I was able to add another entry in my journal, thanks to a dear friend, and ultimately thanks to a good God who really does care.
Here's today's little story:
When Jake was in college he went on a mission trip to Peru. He brought back for me, among other things, a little stuffed bear made with Alpaca fur. This little bear stayed tucked away in a box at the top of the closet for a while- in my "future kids" box. And then five years ago it became clear that Jake and I weren't going to have any future kids together. Since then, I have lived in 4 more places and that little bear made the move with me each time; though eventually he was living in the "I'm not sure what I'll do with this but I don't want to get rid of it" box. Then came sweet Hudson, two years ago today and I decided to put the little bear in his room. Hudson had very little interest in stuffed animals until recently, and he never had a comfort item like a blanket or pacifier either. But recently, he developed a particular affinity for the the little stuffed bear (who he's named "Soft Bear") and a stuffed Dalmatian (now named "White Puppy") from the Disney store. He's been sleeping with them every night, holding them in the car, setting them up and playing with them in the house. It's been fun to see him finally develop an interest in a specific item.
Today I was visiting my friend Monie's house and had parked along the street. When I went to get Hudson out of his car seat, he was asleep and holding Soft Bear. When I picked Hudson up to carry him into the house, the bear fell out of his hands and bounced off of my foot. I looked down and didn't see it anywhere. After moving the car and laying down to look in the gutter, we came to the unfortunate conclusion that it had bounced off my foot in just the right way and fell all the way down the storm drain.
Monie mentioned that she had once ventured down there through a manhole to retrieve a cat, but I was of course not going to ask her to do that. I have to admit though, that I was pretty crushed. Not only because Hudson had lost his favorite toy on his birthday but mainly because it was from Jake and that made it pretty irreplaceable. I tried to hide my disappointment (maybe not very well) from Monie, but on my way home I called Kevin to share how bummed I was about what had happened.
When Kevin got home from work tonight he told Hudson he had a birthday present for him and to my huge surprise, he pulled that silly little bear out of his pocket!
Apparently, Monie had called the fire department after I left her house this afternoon and explained the situation to them. Even more amazingly, a firefighter came to her house, cheerfully removed the manhole cover, and descended down the ladder to find that little bear at the bottom of the storm drain!
Thank you God for caring about the little things, and thank you Monie, for being such a caring friend! To those of you who know her, this story probably doesn't surprise you at all. The care that you show to so many people really is pretty extraordinary.
Soft Bear has since been rinsed off and had his hair brushed and blow-dried and is sleeping peacefully with Hudson tonight. I dont think I'll ever be able to look at that little bear again without being reminded of God's special and specific care for me.
How has God shown His specific care for you lately?
I'm praying for you and for myself that we recognize and respond to His care more and more frequently, in the ordinary and extraordinary ways that He cares for us all the time.
His grace towards us is always abounding.
Here's to learning to look for it,
Diana
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| Way to go firefighter, Jamie McPhearson! |
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| He found it! |
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