God Provides!

After hearing it recommended numerous times by blogger Sarah Clarkson, I recently started reading Wendell Berry's novel Hannah Coulter. The book's appeal is different from a lot of the novels that I enjoy. The story is quiet and rather uneventful, narrating the life of a woman in small-town Kentucky beginning before World War II. Much of the writing (as far as I've gotten, anyway) is a celebration of essential pleasures of life, what many might call small or simple things. I especially loved this quote from the book: "I began to trust the world again, not to give me what I wanted, for I saw that it could not be trusted to do that, but to give unforeseen goods and pleasures that I had not thought to want" (57-58).

My life experience has also proven to me that I can't control things. So much of every day is made up of unavoidable tasks that always take longer than I want them to. It usually doesn't seem to matter how many things I plan to accomplish in a day; I'll just get done what I can, and that's that.

At the same time, I know Hannah's statement to be true. Every day there are small beauties to be enjoyed, if we're careful to observe them. And then, at some times, there are big and magnificent things that happen. One of those happened to my family recently, and it has strengthened my faith that God is providing for us, not only in daily ways but major ways, and that all of my big hopes that I'm afraid to place before Him really are possible with Him.

As I explained in my October 2nd post, A Long-Awaited Day, our wheelchair-accessible rampvan came down with some show-stopping ailments last month. It had had a variety of ongoing issues for so long; really just a series of things wrong with it ever since we first got it in 2008. (At the same time, having it was such a huge blessing, because a rampvan is the only way to transport my husband in his electric wheelchair.) We'd been praying for a long time that we would have the ability to replace the car when doing so was necessary. We couldn't see how we'd be able to replace it, because a brand new wheelchair-accessible van costs about $50,000, and the used ones we'd seen were $30,000 or more. It was one of those things that I pray about but don't see how God will really do it.

And, yet, on October 14th, our church's fundraiser plus GoFundMe campaign had provided more than enough to purchase a 2006 Honda Odyssey Rampvan with only 60,000 miles (and it turned out to be substantially cheaper than the used vans we had seen before!). We now have a much newer, much nicer van with a perfect blend of what worked well in the old car and updated features. And I am reminded again that God can do any of the big things that I hope He will do, in whatever way He chooses to do them, just as He daily provides me with oxygen, water, nourishing food, a home to live in, a beautiful sky to view. I can't control my days and I can't plan specific outcomes, but I can trust God to bring goodness into my life in surprising ways as well as long-hoped-for ways, often through the love and generosity of others.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who gave us gifts of money and prayer! Thank you for showing us again that God provides.

Love,