How We Got Here - Part 2

One morning while I was walking in the neighborhood, I was meditating on a verse of Scripture that I had chosen before I went. It was James 4:17: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” As I walked, I was also praying off and on about money for adoption. As I came around a traffic circle, I saw some trash in the street. It was a tied up Subway bag with some trash inside it. I thought about picking it up. I could take it to our trash can at home – it wasn’t really that far - but I really didn’t want to touch it. But as I argued with myself about whether to pick it up, James 4:17 just kept coming back to my mind! So, I did it. I walked a little way further and I heard a jingling coming from the bag. There was money in it! God said, “This is the first part of your adoption fund, and the promise for the rest.”


I love it when God uses the unexpected to teach us invaluable lessons! He’s so amazing! There were so many lessons in that one simple, crazy event. Here are just a few:

1) God has a plan. (It was no accident that bag was there when I came by.)

2) God wants to meet the needs of others through us. (Someone threw out some money with their trash.)

3) God has it all under control, and He wants us to KNOW that He has it all under control. (That money was a tangible reminder that He will meet our needs in ways we never expected.)

4) Obedience, even in small things, is blessed by God. (If I hadn’t been obedient in that one little thing, I would have missed God’s message to me.)

So… 44 cents (that’s the amount that was jingling around in that bag) isn’t exactly enough to adopt. But it was a promise that God has provisions in place even before we get to the point of being able to receive them. And that obedience, even in small things, is the key to unlocking God’s blessings in our lives.

Later that day I e-mailed my “adoption fund” story to our Sunday morning Bible study class. A couple in the class with small kids of their own gave us a very generous gift to add to our adoption fund. What a blessing! And Mattea brought me $10 of her own money a few days ago. I know that God is going to do it in His time and in His ways. We are believing in faith that He will.

After all, “faith is believing God is who He says He is.”