The Providence of G*d

Merriam Webster's definition of providence: "G*d conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny." Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary adds, "In so doing [in His providence] G*d attends not only to apparently momentous events and people but also to those that seem both mundane and trivial. ...Indeed, so all emcompassing is G*d's attention to events within creation that nothing.... happens by chance." --taken from Esther, Beth Moore

Today I experienced the providence of G*d! I received the "Out of the Comfort Zone" (below) email from a friend this morning who said when she read it she thought of me and sent it. It seems like a neat devotion worthy of sending onward, but for me it held so much more meaning than that. You see, I have been studying Esther very intensely for over a week now. And - not coincidentally - this email focused on a passage of Scripture from none other than Esther! Not only that, I had a pretty bad day yesterday, so when I get this note today from my friend so far away who has no idea of the bad day I had just had and has no idea that I have been studying and pondering deeply the life of Esther, I was immediately touched by the attention of G*d to the events in my life even in the mundane or trivial things such as emails and bad days! I felt as though I had received a hug from G*d and a nudge to keep moving forward in the tasks to which He has called me. All because of a whisper to the heart of a friend who heard and obeyed. Nope...nothing, NOTHING happens by chance.

One of my favorite providence stories happened a few months ago...we had sick kids and to say I was worn out was an understatement. I opened the cabinet to get out some bread and discovered there was no bread. Now normally this would not be all that big of a deal, but I was tired and emotional and did not even feel like going to the store and to see that the bread was gone just about put me over the emotional edge! I'm pretty sure I may have even cried. Sad, I know. But the best part of the story...a little bit later there was a knock on my door. You guessed it, a friend standing there with a LOAF OF BREAD! She had no idea I had just had a breakdown over needing bread. She just had some extra and it was about to expire and thought she'd share with me. :0) G*d is so good, isn't He?

I have another providence story...it happened the week before Thanksgiving. A neighbor/friend came over and we went together to a nearby thrift store to look for some bargains. She got jeans for her son and I got 2 jackets for Elizabeth all for a great bargain!!! On the way home she began asking me questions about my faith in the One True G*d. Once home, I got out the jackets for Elizabeth to try on and noticed the security alarm thingie was still attached to one of them and I was not very happy about it! Thinking that some sort of dye may shoot out of the thing if I tried to break it off, I decided that a trek back to the store was a must. My friend decided to go again with me and amazingly enough she began to continue the conversion about my faith on the way there. When we got there and walked through the front door of the store, the store alarm started beeping very loudly (scared me half to death!) and I pondered why on earth just 10 minutes ago I was able to walk out of there without it making so much as a peep. On the way home, our conversation continued, to the point that once at home we sat outside at my patio table and read Scriptures together in a parallel Spanish/English Bible. Our time together ended with her surrendering her heart and life to Je$us. Wow....what a praise!!! There's no way you could ever convince me that it was a coincidence that this security alarm was not only left on the jacket, but also that it was as if G*d wrapped a shield around the thing to keep it from going off as I left the store the first time (and the fact that it did work very very well upon returning showed me that it wasn't broken!). All of this, because G*d loves this friend of mine (and each one of us) so much that He gave His attention to mundane and trivial events to bring about the life-changing momentous event of receiving one of His own into His kingdom.

"Coincidence" is gone from my worldview....it is all PROVIDENCE because nothing ever happens by chance.