God's Provision

It's interesting how opportunities come at the oddest of times but, when examined closely, it becomes obvious that God was involved all the way and just wants to take us along for the ride!

This past Thursday, my co-worker found out that the meal provider for his group's monthly euchre tournament (which was to be held Friday) had to cancel. He wondered how and where he could find a replacement on such short notice. His group uses volunteer organizations, on a rotating basis, to provide meals to raise funds for their respective organizations.

The timing seemed quite the coincidence (OK, God-incidence) since Penny and I are engaged in raising public awareness and funds for Casa Hogar Vida to support their immediate and ongoing financial needs. I called Penny to get her opinion and right away she said "of course" ~ not knowing what we were going to serve or who would be available to help us. Neither was a consideration in the decision. We recruited friends from work/church, Penny put together a menu, and we were on our way. Of course, that meant making a few extra shopping trips and procuring the use of some roasters, but arrangements fell easily into place.

Of course, obstacles will arise at inopportune times (are there opportune times for obstacles?) to take our eyes off of what God wants to accomplish. On this same Friday, I had to pick up our daughter from Winter Camp at an (as of yet) unknown time Friday afternoon. I was notified pick-up time was 5:00 - 5:30pm ~ two hours from home. We were to start serving the meal around 6:30pm. No problem ~ we recruited our son and with the help of a couple from church ~ Penny thought they could pull it off.

Looking back, we were supposed to go to a surveyor's conference in Columbus, OH from Wednesday through Saturday (as we have for the past two decades) but, because of various other issues, we did not attend. This left me open to pick-up our daughter and, as it turns out, left us available to work the meal (Proverbs 3.5-6, anyone?).

I often wonder how many times God is right there making all of the provisions for us ~ time, funds, people ~ that we just pass off as "coincidence"? How often do we take God for granted or miss His plan because we don't have the faith or understanding to be aware of our Provider?

The group made a significant contribution to Casa Hogar.