Matthew 16-18

This week I have been reminded that God is a loving parent (yes, again.) He provides for the big and the small. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he wants us to be “happy,” but surely he loves us and touches our lives on both the levels of salvation and sanctfication AND the levels of our physical and emotional needs. He can and He does solve our problems in ways that are unfathomable to us as we are asking Him for help. Do you suppose Peter ever dreamed that Jesus would get the tax collector off his back by telling him to go catch a fish? Maybe he thought that he could sell a fish for the money, but Jesus had other plans:

Matthew 18:27-
But we don't want to upset these tax collectors. So go to the lake and fish. After you catch the first fish, open its mouth and you will find a coin. Take that coin and give it to the tax collectors for you and me."

When my A/C broke down in the heat of a Gulf Coast summer, I prayed for help- but when the a/c man said it would be a week until the part came in, I thought God was telling me that I would have to tougj it out. Instead, it turns out that he was giving me a reason to take a break from household work (since wecouldn’t be in the house) to focus on being with the kids right when I needed it. By the time sleeping in a single guest room with a double bed and a family of four got to be too much for us, He provided a window unit that makes our bedroom a cool 70 degrees at night so that we could go home to sleep. God is good – all the time. Once again, all my worry and frustration was a waste.