You knew it was from God

Joe B over at God Even Loves Idiots Like Me has a challenge for us. I'm answering that challenge and passing it on. I would really like every one to answer this question on their own blog and just post a comment here like, "Come to my place". Joe's stories are great and since this isn't a "can you top that!!" kind of challenge, this should be lots of fun. Really!

Here is Joe's question:

So let me ask you, has anything ever happened to
you, big or small, when after it was all said and done you knew it was from God?

About 10 years ago, I spent a long weekend alone with God trying to figure out if God would allow me to leave my husband. Let's just leave it at he was a wicked man. God walked me through some Scriptures and I "heard" Him plain as day, "Gina, My daughter, enough is enough." So I left him and not too long after that, I lost my job. I got another right away but that one was really lousy and it used up all my savings. I had to find another job, one that paid me, and there weren't any good jobs to be had right then.

We had to go buy groceries and I had about $30. When we got in the car, I told my daughter we'd have to get just the necessitites this time until I found something that would support us. I told her I'd been praying that God would provide a job for me and I knew He would in His own timing.

"But, Mom," she asked, "how do you know He'll provide a job? You've been looking forever." At seventeen, emotions run high but my daughter was so even keel this question was more matter of fact rather than laced with worry.

"I just know He will. He always has in the past so I know He will this time, too. I trust His promises. See? Look over there, the sun is shining and the storm has passed. That's the way it will be now. You mark my words." The light turned green and we turned the corner onto Florida Blvd., a main traffic throughway in Baton Rouge. I gasped as I looked through the windshield and tears started streaming down my cheeks. Before us was the most gorgeous rainbow I have ever seen. It was huge against the backdrop of storm clouds moving away, more brilliant than any diamond. "There's your answer, Manda. God always remembers His promises."

"What do you mean, Mom?"

"God put that rainbow there to remind me that He is most Trustworthy. He promised that He would never destroy the earth with water again and gave the rainbow as the sign of that covenant. He promised that He would provide all our needs if we just look to Him and look at that great, brilliant rainbow! He put that there just for us to see, to remind us that He is watching us and He will provide as long as we remember to lean on Him."

In a short while, I got a job at a computer software training center and went on to break a world record for sales in a small town. It was a God thing.

Another time when I was on my teeth-grinding drive home from Arizona after my second husband decided he didn't want to be married anymore. I was devastated and I kept wanting to turn back. God kept nudging me forward. Finally, the whole western sky was a brilliant orange and I heard plain as day, "I've got your back." That night as I lay in a hard, motel bed, I was sobbing my eyes out and crying out to God, "Why?" "What is so terribly wrong with me?" I felt Him press me into the matress, covering me with His hands, and I heard, "You are acceptable to me, beloved. You need only worry about what I say." The next day, my heart was lighter but I was still angry.

Along about Albuquerque, I was enjoying the sun on the snow. I'm a Southern Magnolia and we don't see snow much. Only often enough to know what it is when we see it. So I got a thought in my head about bringing some of that snow back to sweltering Louisiana. I didn't have a thing to put it in except a plastic bag. But, I stopped anyway and right where I stopped, there was some deer tracks and a jack rabbit had hopped right over them. I scooped up those deer tracks and rabbit tracks, putting them in the bag and tossed it into the seat next to me. I grinned most of the way home after that. I brought some deer tracks home to my Daddy. What a hoot that was!

"What's this?" Dad cleared his throat as he peered through the water in the bag.

"Deer tracks and rabbit tracks," I tossed at him dragging my suitcase from the back seat.

"Whaaaa--deer tracks!"

I told him what I'd done and where I'd scooped up the snow. He started laughing then and chuckled every little while then he told Mom, "I'm bringing that to church tomorrow." She laughed and agreed.

After I got my coffee at church, I passed a clump of people peering into that bag of water and one fellow was saying, "Yeah... I think I see it. What was it again?"

It's a God thing.

Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh Luke 6:21b