“You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.” James 5:11 (The Message)
I received an email in April informing me I had “won” a free cup of coffee the entire month of from Panera. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised – telling God “thank You” for yet another blessing, one much bigger than any “reward” I’d received from Panera yet.
I drive our littlest to school every day and pass Panera, so it’s very easy for me to claim my reward on school days. This morning I was picking up the cup of coffee, I thought, “Who can I share this blessing with today?” While I’ll probably enjoy the free cup myself tomorrow, I wanted to pass along the blessing today to someone else. The woman I chose to gift the coffee to told others about it and their faces lit up when they heard I was receiving a free cup of coffee every day for the month of April. And that got me thinking…
While the newness of the reward had worn off by now for me (it’s almost the middle of the month), how many times when I hear about someone else being blessed do I think, “Wow, I wish that was me!” while the person receiving the blessing almost seems immune to the greatness of the gift. And that got me thinking…how often, just this weekend has God blessed me, and have I remembered to thank Him each and every time for each and every blessing?
Water heaters and Bladder pumps. We’ve needed a new water heater for the last two years. We were planning on buying one last year and instead our finances had to go for other things, so since it wasn’t an emergency, we put it off. My husband found one, drastically reduced in price, and we felt God saying, “Now is the time.” On top of that, he won a contest last fall and received $100 gift card as his prize to this particular store. Instead of going out and enjoying a purchase of a new tool (my husband loves tools like I love books and coffee), he chose to keep the gift card for such a time as this.
Doesn’t it always seem when one thing breaks another follows shortly after? Our water pressure had gone wacky on us for a few weeks. My husband checked it out and realized our bladder tank had a leak in it. We were able to buy a new one, discounted from the regular price, and he installed it same day, saving us thousands in cost if we had ignored the problem and ruined the well pump from neglecting the problem. We should also see a significant savings in our electric bill since the pump will be working normally instead of overtime.
Socks. They may not seem significant until the ones your children are wearing have holes in Every. Single. Pair. There was a running joke between our daughter and her grandmother for both Easter and her birthday that she was going to receive socks. I’m not sure how the joke began, but as a result, my mother-in-law called me on Saturday and asked the sizes of our children’s feet so that she could buy not only our daughter but both our sons socks. That was a huge blessing as they all three needed them.
Clothes. We were cleaning out the sunroom this past weekend and I found clothes that were too small for our kids. God whispered two families’ names on my heart and while I thought they wouldn’t work (size wise) I listened to the still small voice and packed them up, as God had conveniently arranged for us to get together the next day. I asked sizes and was pleasantly surprised that they would work. We had also packed away some books and toys for the kids to find as well (who wants just clothes when you can have clothes and toys?) Not an hour after helping my friend load up her car, another friend pulled into my driveway and unloaded clothes and toys into my house – replacing what we’d given plus more. My parents had also just recently so generously completely supplied our daughter with a summer wardrobe and helped our sons fill in the gaps in theirs as well.
These things may seem little to some, but they are huge to me. They show me God cares about the details of our lives. Clothes. Socks. And Coffee. Not a necessity (the coffee) but simply a blessing. And that was just this weekend. I could bore you with details of so many other blessings God has continuously sown into our lives this past year.
What blessings has God been giving to you? Have you identified them as blessings and said thank You? Or like me, does it take someone else getting excited about something I started to take for granted before I remembered, “God, I want to say thank You for everything – the big, small and everything in between.”
© Cheri Swalwell 2015