Provision

What does this picture say to you? "Clean your room"..."Do your laundry"...."Too much stuff"....as a mom, any of those things would have certainly crossed my mind in about a nano-second.
But today, this picture shows me God's provision. Do you remember in the Bible, Matthew, chapter 6, Jesus asks those listening why they were worrying? He compares the birds of the air, and the flowers of the field to us...how they are well taken care of and do not worry. Why do we? Jesus says in verse 31, "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or "What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?" ... for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

"All these things"...you know, when we are resting in His providential care...and I mean REALLY resting...His care is going to come. (It may come anyway, but if we're not resting, we might miss it!)But it will look different than how we expect. Not only because He is the master artist and loves creativity, but because He's God...and He can. Just because He wants to.
My daughter needed some summer clothing. And God provided an acquaintance to drop off GARBAGE BAGS FULL OF CLOTHING. I wish you could really appreciate the mound of clothes in the picture...she is sitting on her knees and the clothes are up to her hips. We were sorting through all the clothes she had received and - because there were so many they all wouldn't fit in her room - we were picking which were her favorites. God gave us so much she gets to pick her favorites. She is too young to appreciate the significance of that. But it was not lost on me. Do you see the two garbage bags to the left of Rachel in the picture? That's what was left over.
Isn't it amazing how abundantly God provides! It certainly was not in the way I had imagined, or, if I'm really honest, how I wanted. (Who wants to admit they need charity?) But I am so grateful, friends, so thankful, for God's lavish-ness. Sometimes His provision comes in a tsunami-like wave of abundance, and sometimes its the exact amount we need. But it always comes. It always comes.
Do we have our hands open wide for His provision? Does it need to look a certain way before we acknowledge it? Or do we allow God the freedom to care for us as He sees fit...because, He's God. I wonder...