God is Good at Math!

It was well past midnight, I was tired but couldn’t sleep. Like King Xerxes in the book of Ester I pulled out my dusty “historical records” (my journals) and read. There is a whole journal dedicated to a time when our children were toddlers and the area where we lived had been hit with a devastating economical crash. The documented unemployment rate was 95%! Our cabinet shop struggled to stay alive. Page after page testifies how God was looking after us and was teaching us that He can be trusted.

As I read, my memories were awakened to the intensity of the time. Our baby faith had been stretched nearly to the breaking point. Time after time God would leave us to the very last moment when all we could do was to cry out to Him. I believe He does this so there is no doubt in our minds that He is in control and can be trusted.

Also like King Xerxes, while trying to get sleepy, I came upon an event that I had forgotten.

Our power bill was over-due and the electricity had been scheduled to be disconnected. My husband and I had agreed not to go into debt any further but to trust God. I had gone to our bank and had withdrawn what was left in my Ebay account. I then drove to our local Credit Union and cashed in our shares. To that I added the small amount of change I had found in the house. I knew it wasn’t enough but prayed that it would keep the electricity from being disconnected.

When I walked up to the counter to pay our bill I was informed that my mother had been there ahead of me. Evidently she had tried hard to get them to tell her the outstanding balance however privacy laws prevented them from giving her that information. Finally she had prayed and paid $170 on our account and left.

Now there I stood at the same counter a few hours later. I emptied my wallet on the counter and pushed crumpled dollar bills and stacks of quarters, nickels and dimes towards the clerk. To my surprise when all was counted it was determined that it had matched exactly what was left outstanding on our account! Only God does that kind of math!

I yawned and left a bookmark in my journal. My unsettled thoughts and concerns for my own children were again at rest. The same God who cast out demons, raised the dead, and calculated the exact amount needed to pay the power bill was still living and is actively working behind the scenes gifting our children with their own stories of faith.