In silence she hung up the phone and absorbed the message of the phone call. There would be no money earned from cleaning that house this month or any other month in the future. That expected income had just disappeared.
Silently she bit her lips and prayed. She would not tell her husband the bad news just yet. She would wait and see what God would do instead. With a new baby, a toddler and two older children, she knew the real need for that money. And for some reason, God had withdrawn one expected source for paying the bills, putting food on the table and clothes on the children.
“God, if I don’t have to worry about the missing $200 this month, let me know,” she prayed knowing all the ways she had worked the past few years to help her husband meet the budget while staying at home. She left it in God’s hands.
That night her husband pushed his way into the house balancing two huge packages of disposable diapers that he thunked onto the counter with a thud.
“Where did those come from?” she asked.
“A guy a work. And,” he reached into his pocket, “he gave me a $100 for the baby.”
Tears began to flow down her face.
“What!? What’s wrong?” he asked in confusion.
“Nothing’s wrong. I just learned today that I won’t be cleaning that house. I told God if I wasn’t to worry, that He should let me know. And he has,” she sniffed looking at the diapers and the cash. “It is a direct answer to prayer that we will have the money. That it is going to be fine.”
Then a friend asked if the young mother would babysit her little boy one day a week. Of course, he could come.
“He is an easy toddler. It is no big deal. It is stuff like that the keep me home with our toddler and baby,” she said thinking of a guaranteed weekly date for her pre-schooler.
Between the unexpected gift and the little income generated from keeping the easy toddler, God had shown He would provide the missing income from the loss of housecleaning.
The sheaf of papers on their discharge from the hospital after the birth of their fourth child had included an application for a program that helped pay medical bills. Although they had had no complications and only a short stay, the deductible would still take a hefty bite out of their savings. The new parents prepared the paperwork. They printed out 175 pages of information and submitted it to the program.
Three weeks passed. The hospital sent the first bill. The new parents called to make arrangements to pay part of the bill.
In the background the new mom could hear the click of the computer keys as the accountant pulled up financial records.
The woman on the line said, “Oh. I see that we have just posted that your bill has been forgiven.”
She went on to say that the forgiveness included any hospitalizations the family might have in the next three months. With four children, they welcomed the gift. With their family health record, they do not anticipate needing it. The amount they did not have to pay would more than cover many months of house cleaning.
God provides needs in His way and His time. Sometimes He provides wants.
Before Christmas the young family had considered combining all the monetary gifts given to the family that year and purchasing a trampoline for the children who really, really wanted one. In the end, they decided the money should go elsewhere.
After the holidays, a friend called as she packed up her house to move out of state, “Would you like to have our trampoline? We cannot take it with us.”
“Of course,” the mother of four energetic kids responded. “The kids would love to have it.”
The trampoline came and settled into the back yard.
Her husband puzzled about the gift. He could not understand ‘why’ they had received it.
“Because God is our Heavenly Father just like you are a father,” she told him. “Don’t you enjoy giving your children gifts just for fun? Just like an earthly father, our Heavenly Father sometimes gives gifts to us just for fun.”
God’s love and provision does come in different packages for every person. This year God is showing the young family another way He provides for their daily bread — sometimes He gives abundantly above all that they can imagine.
joanh@everybody.org