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Seeing God’s Hand

I had been talking to my family over the last month about recognizing God’s hand in our daily lives. I challenged them to jot down any little miracles that came their way, so that they would remember them.  We had a good discussion about the idea that God blesses us on our way, and we often don’t even realize it.  I asked everyone to be alert, watching for God’s hand in their life.

After these discussions, we were all naturally in the position of “watch and see”.  Of course, expecting a miracle makes you want to pray more.  I found myself praying for God’s help more constantly, and watching for His hand.  I asked my children day-to-day what was happening to them, and each time I asked, at least one of them would tell of some small incident that had lightened their load.

I’ll  tell you one of mine:

At the time, my son Ammon was preparing to be a missionary.  He got a long list of what to take to Chile, and it included a certain type of waterproof shoes (it is really really wet at the southern tip of Chile!)  So Ammon and I shopped and shopped and shopped.  We found a pair that felt good to him, and was waterproof and met all the qualifications, so we bought it, in spite of the triple digit price tag.  Then we continued shopping.  He needed two pairs of waterproof shoes.  He tried on innumerable pairs of shoes, but couldn’t find a pair that met the standard and fit well.  As the time ticked away for his preparation, we decided to go back to the original store where he bought his first pair a few months before, and just buy a duplicate pair.  That seemed to solve the problem.  We asked God to smooth the way for us.

We entered the shoe store and asked to purchase the shoes, only to find that they had not received a shipment for 8 weeks from that shoe company, in spite of several phone calls to urge them on. In addition, that particular style had been discontinued.  It seemed we were dead-ended now!  I asked the sales clerk if she would go and check if the delayed order had possibly been delivered that morning. I was trying to exercise faith. The sales clerk was reluctant, but she left for awhile, and when she came back, quite surprised, she exclaimed that, yes, the box had arrived just that morning.  She said it would be a long while before the incoming shipment could be opened and entered into their store inventory, however.  And it was nearly impossible that it would contain the shoes we needed.  I told her we’d wait.

After fifteen minutes of waiting (which never comes easy to me), the sales clerk located a large box and opened it.  The chances that the particular style of shoe we wanted would be in that box were very slim.  To find the right size would be even slimmer.  I think you can guess the ending. The sales clerk quickly scanned the box ends, and lifted out the exact pair we needed!  Even in such a small thing, God’s hand—his tender mercy to us—was demonstrated so vividly!

It is amazing, when you stop and watch, how many times God is there to smooth your way.  His hand is truly a help to us. He cares about the personal details of our lives!  Sometimes we just have to watch for it.

“Be not faithless, but believing—John 20:27

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