A God Moment

This week I have been reminded just how much the Lord cares for me. He's been showing me in not so small ways that he's "got my back". See, my relationship with God is this friendship thing. He's my best and I'm his best. Best friends. There is a praise song that goes "Jesus, you are my best friend, and you will always be, and nothing will ever change that." That's me and God. We're tight.

But sometimes I forget just how much he cares for me. How much he provides. How much he's got his finger on the pulse of my life. This week, whether he decided to remind me, or whether I woke up and smelled the roses, I'm not sure. Either way, I got a few wake-up calls this week. Want to hear?

First came in the form of a large, furry animal. The big black kind. We're talking a black bear people. Now, bears are no strangers to our subdivision. I've blogged about a few sightings before. But this time, God's provision was involved. See, almost a week ago today, was garbage day. We always take our garbage out in the morning before Shane leaves for work. Our routine goes something like this: I'm up first to make Shane's lunch. He get's up about 15-20 minutes later. He gets ready for work. He takes all three dogs out for their potty time. And then we just wait for his ride to come or he leaves to pick up his carpool buddy. Whichever the day. On garbage days, Shane takes out the recycling and garbage while taking out the pups. This day was different.

I had lined up the recycling bins by the door for Shane to take out. This morning he didn't take the dogs out with him. As he went to open the front door, recycling bin in hand, a big black bear came running up the side of our yard with our garbage can in his mouth! He ran with our can across the street, into the neighbors back yard and I'm assuming, into the woods. A minute or two passed and we noticed there was a garbage bag left in the yard. With no bear in sight, Shane went to go pick it up. We didnt' want to invite that bear back. Or the crows. While he was picking up the sack, the bear came back. And boy, he was a bigg'en. He started down the neighbors driveway back towards our house. Shane was closer to the bear than to the door of our house. I was in the doorway saying a little prayer.

This photo does no justice to his size. I'm across the street with my cheap digital camera.

Thankfully, Shane was able to scare the bear off. But I was reminded how God took care of my little family. On a normal day, the dogs would have run right out of the house. Hopefully they would have just scared the bear away, but truly, there is no telling how the bear would have reaccted. I'm thankful that in the split second that Shane went to walk out of the house, the bear chose to run away from the side of our house. I'm thankful that Shane didn't have a one on one with that ol' black bear.


Here is just one more example of how God was takin' care of his kids this week. See, in our town/area, we've been getting buckets of rain. The city has been hit so hard that streets have been closed down due to flooding. Cars are floating away and people are literally paddeling down the street in canoes. A few months ago, we were hit with a flooding basement. Since then we've installed a sump pump that has really taken care of us. I'm thankful to report that though we've been hit with so much rain, we've had no flooding. Many many other homeowners have, and my heart goes out to them, but thankfully, we've been taken care of. Maybe the Lord knew this all would happen and was preparing us a few months ago. Hmm....I'm not sure...

But though there hasn't been any water damage, our hot water tank broke yesterday. Wham-boo, broke. No rhyme or reason as to why. Shane just thinks that it was old. Kaput. Dead. Panic started to sink in as we realized that we would need a new one. But then, God brought to memory, that we RENT our tank. Yes, rent. And that if it breaks, we get a new one. Free of charge. It's a pain to pay for it each month, but this week, it's paying off. The real kicker is, again, a few months ago, Shane almost tore out that tank and bought our very own. We'd been having a lot of problem s with the tank company. They were applying our bill payment to my inlaws bill and made it seem like we weren't paying for our service. Dinging up our credit. Not cool. After a heated phone call with the company, Shane decided to just wait on tearing out the tank. Yesterday, we saved $1000 because we waited. Granted, the new tank won't get installed until tomorrow... but I'm a-ok with that! I'm showering at my inlaws and that's just fine with me.

God's got us in the palm of his hand. He's always there whether we see it or not. I've really been reminded of this verse this week:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 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 6:25-27

So my friends, remember who it is that is keeping you. Who holds you. Who's got you in the palm of his hand. Who's caring for you so deeply. Who has it all figured out. Just rest in his will.