Today as I was vacuuming with this antique I couldn't help but sing a little homemade song of thanks to God (literally). Four years ago when I moved into my first apartment, the maintenance man found out I needed a vacuum cleaner and gave this to me. The complex had just replaced it for obvious reasons. Since that day, I have not had to repair or maintain it in any way. It works perfectly fine, although it doesn't have all the fancy colors of a Dyson. My Cinderella song came out of gratitude for the fact that because of this beauty now headed for the yard sale, I never had to buy a nice new vacuum cleaner, which at this point would have to be moved to storage for 2 years. If that doesn't get you singing, you must not have moved recently. In particular not to another continent, putting all your life's possessions in a storage unit.The vacuum cleaner made me reminisce about other times that God has provided for me, whether miraculously or in ordinary ways. The best of the stories took place around the same time I got the vacuum cleaner. Tim and I, preparing for our wedding and down to spare change under the couch cushions, were scouring the cabinets and trying to dream up a recipe with ranch dressing and flour. We decided to step back from the dinner dilemma for a while and hopped down the road to the Wednesday night service at Carmel Baptist (which we had never attended and have not attended since). I was feeling particularly desperate as I walked through the double doors. All we could do was laugh when we saw laid out before us several 10-foot tables buckling under the weight of a potluck bonanza. It happened to be some special celebration night at the church, and in honor of the pastor the congregation had brought out their finest fare. God could have left me with ranch dressing that night. He could have provided PB&Js. Instead I stumbled on a feast fit for kings.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6: 25-27, 31-34
