Case in point: A few weeks ago, I finally reached the point where I had saved up enough of my dance earnings to purchase a new pair of hard shoes. I've had my old pair for nearly three years, and they're so stretched out they don't fit anymore. The soles are too thick and the tip of the toe is rounded off, so they don't flex enough to go onto point, and even then they're much too slippery and dangerous. I put in my order and received them about a week ago, and I've been enjoying them greatly. I can now go on my tippy-toes and I can actually point my foot and my rocks are actually visible... I've been having a lot of good fun with them, though the painful breaking-in process still isn't over yet.
Then, out of the blue, I received another package from the same company. It looked suspiciously like the package containing the pair of shoes that I ordered, but I knew I hadn't purchased anything else. I opened it, and there was another pair of shoes, the right size and everything.
At first, I thought I'd botched the order somehow, maybe hit '2' when I meant '1'. I checked the receipt; it said I had only asked for one. I checked my bank account, and I'd only been charged for one. In the end, I could find no particular cause why this pair of shoes arrived, out of the blue, on my doorstep.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the shoes, but I whether I keep them or not seems rather irrelevant. The point is: somehow, God multiplied one pair of shoes into two pairs. This is as much of a correction as a blessing. Oftentimes, when I think of God providing for me, I think of him helping me find something cheap and affordable, maybe second-hand or ill-fitting, but enough. Nothing could be farther from the truth in this instance! These things are brand new: beautiful, shiny, and they fit perfectly.
The whole incident has made me realize that, in my trust that God will provide enough, I have been trying to restrict Him to just providing enough, to giving what is necessary and practical. But where in the Bible does it say God's ways must be practical, especially to a human? I've been praying for a job, for provision for college, for clear direction in my life. Part of me looks at the shoes and wants to say, "Honestly, God... dance shoes? Couldn't you have packaged up a job offer and dropped it at my door?" Even so, I cannot be bitter - just a bit incredulous. I should not be; this is God we're talking about! When have his ways ever made practical sense? Why could He not just tell the Israelites how to eat Cacti or how to cultivate some edible wilderness plant instead of literally pouring the food from heaven? Why make water come from a Rock when he could just as easily have led them to a stream? It's ridiculous--and it's so, so wonderful.
He'll always give me enough, but He's not limited to that. His love is extravagant, sometimes more obviously so than others. I know dance shoes are not nearly as necessary to physical life as manna from heaven or water from the rock, or as vital for eternal life as His death on the cross (is that not an abundance of love?), but the little thing is no less beautiful to me because it points to the same God.
What a beautiful picture he paints every day of Himself, putting things in our lives before we knew we needed them. I did need the shoes, though I did not know I needed them because I thought of dance shoes as ways to express dance. God's imagination is infinitely greater than mine, and they become an expression of love.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)
Thanks for sharing this story, Anna... God's love for us is so extravagant. Don't you think sometimes that He does things just because He just wants you to see you smile?
P.S. I personally think it's a sign from heaven. You're supposed to become a dance teacher! :o)
I was just talking to someone about how great it is to do something nice for someone else just to see the look on his or her face. I think God derives the same pleasure in seeing the looks on our faces!
God is amazing indeed. :-) Thanks for sharing!
I recently saw the love of God in my severed nerve in my hand. Not in the severing, but in the provision of speedy appointment with the desired surgeon and just as speedy surgery opening. I would not have chosen to have God's love demonstrated by severing a nerve, but God knows better than I do.