The days following Thanksgiving are busy and filled with football, sweatpants, leftovers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping lists, trying to continue my thankful heart and preparing said heart for December. Yup I said it, December. It’s here.
We are halfway done with December and already it has been filled with twinkling lights, too much sugar and the never ending and changing Christmas list. Going into December me and Tim knew that the this month’s budget was going to be tight. Like St. Nicholas going back up the chimney after the last millionth cookie of the night. Tight. Between traveling back to Michigan to visit friends and family for Christmas and purchasing and making the necessary repairs to our new used car, margin was minimal. The space for giving or gifting each other or others was nearly out of the question. Until we asked for help.
One afternoon, the day we worked out our budget together, we prayed for God to 1. Help us find the right car for us (that would fit in our budget) and 2. Remind us what this season is all about.
God spoke. God answered. God provided.
Not but a few days later, Tim’s grandmother generously gave Tim’s parents (who were visiting us for Clay’s birthday) cash for us all to go relive one of her fond memories– the buffet at the Bellagio (not cheap). We all ended up getting food poisoning that weekend before we had a chance to go to the buffet. We didn’t use the money for our stomachs, so grandma said use it for whatever we need, so it went toward our used van fund. We then found the van that same day (Thanks God) and we didn’t have to get a loan! Praise Jesus. Then my mom and her husband ended up blessing us by covering the cost of our rental car when we come visit Michigan and extra money on top of that for whatever we needed. Um HELLO GOD! Then I get notified that I was getting reimbursed from a doula client’s labor and birth. $500. WHAT IS THIS?!?
I seriously cannot tell you enough that God had a plan. Even though we thought our whole month was shot, God gave us MERCY. We have been trying to get with the program and pay off our debt, but we have been awful. We didn’t deserve this generosity. If you checked our bank statement you would see that our stomachs are our downfall. Food? Yup let's buy it, even though we didn’t budget for it. God gave us more than we even needed. How close is this to the gospel??!! Talk about a reminder about the truest meaning of Christmas. God gave it all for me, even when I was still a scummy, good for nothing sinner – which I must say I still am today– so that I may be with Him again.
In Ruth 2, you see a story about how a women named Naomi was going through hardship and feeling like she had been forgotten by God. She was in need of a redeemer for her family’s name. Her daughter-in-law, Ruth, was loyal and stuck by her side, not afraid of what may happen to her as a Moabite in Bethlehem. Ruth and Naomi needed food after arriving back in Bethlehem and Ruth decides to head to the fields to collect the leftover barley from the harvest. She meets Boaz, a man of good character who shows favor to Ruth having heard about her life and her journey to Bethlehem. He allowed Ruth, the foreigner, to stay in his field and close to the other young women for protection, to pick alongside the reapers, to have bread and wine with him for lunch, to gather sheaves of grain from those already picked, and to continue to gather grain for the rest of the harvest. Because of the generosity of Boaz, Ruth gathered far more than the scraps she was expecting. She gathered six gallons of grain, in one day. WOW!
Sure we can see the outer storyline: damsel in distress finds man and man rescues damsel from distress. If you look a little closer you will see that there is more to the story. This is the picture of what happens when we accept the Gospel and receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts and follow God with the commitment, loyalty and faith like that of Ruth. God will bless us far beyond the scraps of the grain harvest, more abundantly than we can even imagine. We may feel or believe that we are stuck or in a place of suffering, but God is a good god. One who never forsakes his children.
So in this time of advent, waiting for Jesus’ final return, you better believe I will be filling my storehouses with the grain of the harvest and I will be ready to share it with others. God is so generous. He showed it to Ruth way back B.C. and he shows it again to me this December, 2018. Not only reminding me that we need to get our poop in a group with our money, but there is more to the story. He is with me. He is providing for me when I can’t see it or I start doubting it. It makes me speechless and so grateful for the cross.
Until next time friends.
X O
Katie
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