Jehovah Jireh Does it Again (and Again and Again)

Oh tender friends!

I almost feel guilty writing this post. Because we’re so undeserving, and yet…

God has provided for us again, and the sentence “There are no lesser miracles” has been on my mind and in my spirit. (This isn’t an actual phrase from the bible, just something I have been thinking about).

When God provided a response to our physical need for heat as I discussed in this blog post, I knew that I had received a miracle and thanked God for that miracle.

But you know what? Given that our health and quality of life is largely determined by the quality of our relationships, I’m going to be bold and say that God has provided an even bigger miracle for our family.

We evolved as pack animals. The men used to hunt together while women cared for the family together. So much of the modern day unhappiness stems from no longer being in the pack, as I’ve written about before.

We moved to Virginia (in the United States) when Cub was just 5 weeks old. Everything shut down because of COVID shortly thereafter, and we were both walking around like this.

Remember when Kroger was the only thing open? Well I initiated conversations with everyone there. I was tempted to just invite them over to my house because I didn’t know anyone else but was afraid they’d think I was weird.

Fortunately, things opened back up…after what felt like an eternity. While I began to meet and make friends through moms’ groups and hobby groups, Anthony went to work and came back every day without spending time with friends. He was lonely. Watching him feel lonely hurt my heart.

But I initially overlooked how important it was to pray for this need.

When I started praying, God answered. Within a month of praying- praying specifically that my husband would have a friend outside of our family- our neighbor Larry started helping Anthony around the garden and meeting with him for Bible study. He’s a mature Christian who has decades of experience growing his own food and raising chickens and has been more than generous sharing his time, knowledge, and talents with us.

“Larry sure is a blessing. God definitely sent him to us,” Anthony often says.

(Yeah, I know, I prayed about that, remember? I’m not trying to take credit…BUT I have it written in my prayer journal!)

“Is it weird to say that my best friend is 70 years old?” he also asks.

I definitely don’t think so.

I’m just beginning to understand how God provides everything. We know that every good and perfect thing comes from the hand of the father, and that includes our friends.

While I regularly considered God’s provision of food and shelter and health, I neglected to take my need for social connection to him.

And God has provided this friendship to provide even more of our material needs.

With Larry’s guidance, Anthony has built us a proper composting center from wood pallets that he got for free and rehabilitated an old rabbit coop that we are able to use as a nester for the chicks. With the cost of wood still being so high, this is huge for us.

And little Cub loves watching them work. When he sees Larry pull in our driveway, he hustles to get his shoes because “needs to go work with them” and says, “I love Larry.”

The thing that really gets me about this provision is that it was there the whole time. Larry was our neighbor for over two years before I started praying this prayer, and God provided so quickly.

But wait, there’s more.

We needed additional stakes for our garden this year, and just last week Anthony was breaking down what he expected our costs to be to purchase them. I said, “Wait, let’s just pray and see what God does.”

A few days later Anthony came across someone giving away the stakes we needed.

I’m still in awe. And even though I’m writing all these requests down to hold myself accountable to remember to thank God properly, we have seen such a direct correlation between our needs and God’s provision lately that it’s still hard for me to believe. I just keep asking myself, is this really happening? And why are we receiving so much?

Which makes me wonder…what blessing is sitting around, with God just waiting for you to ask for it?

What other blessings is God waiting for me to ask for, waiting for me to realize that my own toiling always fails?

Every good and every gift comes from above. Thank you, Yahweh, for giving me a more expansive view of your good and perfect gifts.

Thank you for stopping by, tender friends, and stay blessed!

Thank you for sharing!

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