Don’t you just love those times when God reaches down and gives you a hug? Where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt He is just reaching down and telling you He loves you?
I woke this morning to a list of school closings due to sub-zero weather. As my foggy brain began to wrap my mind around what this meant. This meant my daughter, who was leaving in a few hours for a mostly outside weekend retreat, would be going without a winter coat.
Now before you award me the “Bad Mom of the Year” award, neither of my children have winter coats. They have hoodies, but no coat. I stopped buying them years ago because they just didn’t wear them. I don’t know if this is a generation thing and all teens don’t wear winter coats- or if it’s just my peeps. When I inquire if they are cold, they repeatedly tell me their last name is Beach – which means they don’t get cold. O.k. then. Not me. I married in. I’m always cold and I always wear a winter coat. But I digress…
So to recap – no coat, sub-zero temperatures, little time and not wanting to spend a lot of money on a coat she wouldn’t wear again. At breakfast when we prayed we ask God to provide a warm, cute coat quickly for my daughter. I know that was super-specific, but if it were cute and not warm she’d still be cold. Or if it were warm and not cute, she wouldn’t wear it.
So we bundle up (I mean, I bundled up) and we headed to the local thrift store. We scoured the racks and just as I was thinking we would have to head to the mall, my daughter walks over to me and says, “I found it!” As I looked down at the coat in her arms I felt such love from our Heavenly Father. He provided above and beyond what we needed.
It indeed was the perfect coat. It was a brand name that looked new. As I looked at the tag I saw it was down. She loved the softness and the cute factor. Thank you, Jesus! She could have gone with a coat she didn’t like, but He blessed her with one she would have fell in love with had she found it on the racks of a department store. One that she would wear more than this one weekend. When we checked the price new online we found she got the coat for 93% off retail – and we were home within the hour. Thank you, Jesus!