God provides...

Don’t ever think you can second-guess God…He is so creative…well, yeah…I know…He IS the Creator, so I guess that makes sense. But He truly is. He is also merciful beyond compare in ways that we often don’t even recognize. And He loves to bestow His blessings. I think He enjoys surprising His children sometimes with just how those blessings are delivered.
That is such a tricky thing to say because I’m going to write about a material blessing and yet I really do believe that the presence of the Lord IS the blessing. Living here has made me more aware of that than ever before. So, in order to unite those two for the purpose of this particular blog, I want to share that as a result of someone being blessed by the presence and love of the Lord in their own lives, they in turn, have blessed us in a material way.
If you remember, my computer crashed last week which resulted in the loss of, or at the very least, the inaccessibility of, all the information stored in my hard drive. That event resulted in the loss of all my lessons for all my English classes, my spreadsheets, my blogs, my Bible program, my newsletters and template and all the other things a person stores on their computer. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe it and I couldn’t believe the timing of it. School was ready to start. I know God is in control of all things so I knew there was a reason for His allowing this but I sure wasn’t understanding what it might be. I also know that God doesn’t owe me an explanation. And so, I started trying to figure out what I could do instead of dwelling on what had happened. It was a struggle…
And if that weren’t enough, I realized all too quickly that left us with only Jim’s computer which we use as a backup. It’s a refurbished laptop that we bought directly from Dell after our other laptops were stolen. We chose a refurb for one reason only…it was the only one we could get shipped in the time we had allotted. A friend of Susanna’s was coming to visit and had offered to bring a laptop to us so we hurriedly ordered what was available at the time. The cost was cheaper but not enough to justify the quality we received.
The poor thing has been limping along almost from the get-go. It is fine when it’s working as it should…the problem is, it is becoming more and more frequent that it doesn’t. It is a scary thing to know that this is what we now depend upon. Many folks use their ‘puters for entertainment purposes but it is our link to home.
True, it is how we watched our few dvds (until Mandy sent us a small dvd player at Christmas) and it is how I listen to Bott Radio every morning but it’s main purpose is the tool we use to conduct and connect the “business” of Deep Water to those back home. It is how we know who is sick, who has something to celebrate, who is hurting, who is afraid, who is lonely and it is how we communicate those things to you. It is how we get to hear the voices of those we love and miss so much and how we send info to those who need it. The thought of being without a computer makes me feel anxious. It also makes me appreciate what life must have been like for all those who preceded us on the mission field who didn’t have the luxury of electronic communication. We are blessed to have even a wounded computer!
Yes, our wounded laptop is a blessing but we recognize the fact it’s “living” on borrowed time. We had reconciled ourselves to the idea that we would have to purchase a new laptop in March. I began doing some research on what type of computer might best serve our needs, be reliable and still be within our already-stretched budget. (Our vacation to Miami was great and we definitely rested while there but it was still more expensive than we had planned…I suppose that’s how life is in most ways…more (fill in the blank) than we expected. I know what I was looking for was asking a lot but that’s what I tend to do…ask the Lord for the impossible!
I happened to be checking my Facebook account the other day while Jim’s laptop was in a happy mood and allowing me to get on the internet. All of a sudden, a chat window popped up and it was one of my sweet, young friends from FBC. She cut right to the chase, told me she had heard about our computer and asked what we were doing. I began to fill her in and she didn’t even wait for me to complete my long-winded answer before she asked if they could give us their new laptop. I was stunned in one respect and yet not terribly surprised in another as she has consistently been one of the most giving and generous people I’ve ever come across. She has an amazing heart and God has blessed me with her friendship even though she’s much closer in age to my own children than to me!
She sent the details of the laptop and it was the very brand I was looking seriously at buying! I couldn’t believe it. I quickly told her we would pay for the laptop but as much as we appreciated her heart and her offer, we just couldn’t accept it as a gift.
Well my friend is not only generous and often, impulsive, but she is also very smart. She immediately played the one card against which I have no comeback. She said that God had laid it on her heart to do that and that she knew it was something they were supposed to do. She assured me they have three other computers in their home and that she bought it only because it was such a good deal she didn’t want to pass it up. She said God knew that we would need a new laptop and that He had prompted her to go back to the store and buy it. That happened in November – two months before the crash! She seemed ecstatic – not only to be able to do this for us but also to answer a need that the Lord had brought before her.
I have told you before that I am a giver. I love to give! But God is teaching me there is another side of giving and that’s receiving. Both are to be done with humility in the heart. I know I’m not alone in this struggle…I think there are many of us “givers” who have trouble “receiving”. I can’t answer for all the rest of them, but I know God has been speaking to my heart through His Word about the various forms pride can take. Refusing to receive God’s blessings is one of those forms and it was one of the things He had been dealing with me about in another manner unrelated to this. Ouch!!! He was no longer whispering to me about that, He was now using Facebook!
I talked to Jim and asked him what he thought. He told me that it was an incredibly generous offer but he was concerned as this particular laptop was supposed to come with Windows 7 and all of our disks with the programs we have to use are compatible only with Vista or Windows XP operating systems. I told my friend of Jim’s concern and she told me that the computer didn’t come preloaded with Windows 7, that the disk for it was coming in the mail and had not yet arrived so there wouldn’t be an issue. She just wouldn’t load it with Windows 7 and we could load all our programs on it without any problems. God takes care of the details!
I thanked her as best I could. I was so dumbfounded and my simple words just didn’t seem adequate to convey the depth of our gratitude. My eyes blurred as I typed those simple words, “Thank you so much.” She responded that she was excited to be able to do that for us and then she quickly moved right in to how we were to actually get the computer. She wanted to ship it to us but that’s not an option for us here. It would be too much of a temptation to someone and would never reach us. We decided that we would wait until we came home in March. I told her that God knew our situation and that we were just going to continue to ask the Lord to keep Jim’s computer running until we could replace it. She said she believed He would do that and then she told me she had to go as she was helping another friend stain their new cabinets.
That is such a good example of who she is. She is high energy, she is determined, she is fun and funny and she is an extremely caring and giving person. She loves the Lord and she desires to be obedient to Him. She understands the blessing of the Lord’s presence. She also understands the blessing of giving. And that our blessings don’t stop with us but that we are all blessed to be a blessing. She was and we are.
Wow! God’s provision!