Overalls and Miracles...

A couple days ago, Lena says to me, "Mom, next time we go shopping, I wanna get a pair of overalls like Elizabeth wears on "The Waltons" to collect the eggs. Like Elizabeth, collecting the eggs is one of Lena's jobs. Between that and the fact that she, too, is the "little sister" with lots of big brothers bossing her around, she feels a special kinship with Elizabeth. Of course, I answered her with a non-committal "We'll see." I filed the request away in the back of my mind knowing that it would be several weeks before we could begin thinking about the overalls, between the trip to Haiti and other odds and ends coming up--plus the simple fact that overalls are generally not out for sale in the summer time. Honestly, I expected the overalls to be more of a next-winter acquisition.

Anyway, we were going through some boxes of clothes from our shed that we'd been given last year. The friend who gave them to me has girls that are about 2 years older than Lena, and knowing that they were freshly outgrown by her girls last year at the end of summer, I had put them up for this year, and had not even finished going through them at the time because they were all very obviously too big. Lo and behold, what do you think we found in there? I thought it was just a pair of blue jeans folded up, but then the tell-tale buckle slipped out. Not only overalls, but perfectly fitting (but she likes them rolled up) and perfectly "broken in" too! What a great opportunity for me to remind her (and myself) that God hears our most seemingly inconsequential requests and takes JOY in granting them.

We had another wonderful reminder today, too! As most of you know, John Wesley and I will be leaving for Haiti late Thursday evening (around midnight). I still have about $300 or so of shopping to get done and also needed a couple hundred dollars in cash to take with us for spending. Harold and I were talking about this as I was opening the mail today. He said, "I just don't know what to tell you. You are welcome to whatever is in the account, but it's not going to be enough to pay for what you need to buy AND get your spending money. Payday isn't till Friday and you'll be gone by then." (See, we stopped using credit cards a long time ago, so whipping out the plastic isn't an option as far as we are concerned.) He continued, "Maybe someone has air beds we can borrow." I continued opening the mail, and calmly said, "Don't worry about it, I think this will take care of it," as I held up a check for $500.00 that had been sent for our trip! Did you read that amount? FIVE HUNDRED dollars. That will cover EXACTLY the amount I needed! Is that a coincidence? I think not! That is God's provision.

What an awesome reminder again of how faithful God is to meet our needs. Not always our WANTS (although in Lena's case, He did that too). It's also a great reminder for me to not lose hope when things look impossible. For that check to come TODAY, when I have only TOMORROW left to get the shopping and money changing taken care of, is nothing short of a miracle, in my eyes. To think that God, you know, the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, takes the time out of His day to hear the requests of an eight year old little girl who wants a pair of overalls and a nothing-special, stay-at-home-momma, who doesn't have much to offer in return is so amazing. Amazing love.