Today something amazing happened to me. I told two different people about it and they were both unimpressed. I refused to let them take away the amazement I felt. I'm going to share what happened here and take it for what you will, my heart knows the truth of the mini-miracle (as if any miracle is truly mini.) Maybe in the grand scheme of things this isn't important, but the Spirit has impressed upon me that this small (mini) miracle was allowed for a much bigger lesson, by the Grace of God it will be one I can learn.
I went grocery shopping yesterday. I had my little paper list (I've tried lists on my tablet etc, but paper just seem more convenient somehow lol). So I gathered all my groceries going through the list and yes, everything was found and added to my cart.
Only one thing wasn't what I really wanted- butter. I wanted the store brand butter- you know the four 1/4 lb sticks in the 1 lb of butter box, cheaper version. They were sold out, on sale, so I'm not surprised. Needing butter I opted for a brand I hadn't tried before Cabot. I'm telling you all this to impress upon you that I KNOW without a doubt I put the butter in my cart to buy.
So jumping forward, I'm at the check-out and as I try to do all the time I made sure I had all my grocery bags when it's time to go, the check-out woman also looked with me, spinning the little turnabout around. I had all my bags and that was that.
I go home and put all my groceries away- some in the cupboards, some on the cupboard, some in the pantry, a few in the fridge- you know how it goes. Then I go about my day.
A bit later it's time to make dinner and I begin to gather various ingredients I need and lo and behold… you already guessed it, NO butter! I hadn't even noticed when I was putting groceries away- it wasn't until I needed it that I noted its absence. Well anyone who has ever done this knows what I did next… I hurried out to the car to see if I'd left it in there, you know, fallen out of the bag or some such. No. No butter in the car. Alright time to check all the places I put the groceries away- I am getting on in years so my putting it somewhere it doesn't belong wouldn't be beyond me. **G**
You probably guessed again that I didn't find it anywhere. Now it's time to call the store just to see if perhaps I'd left it there and the cashier set it aside (something they've done before in my experience). No. No butter had been turned in as being forgotten.
My dismay is deepening. I wanted that butter. The person on the phone when I called the store told me that maybe if I had my receipt they could replace it (I thought it an odd thing to offer, but nice) so I went to get my receipt. I remembered putting it in one of the bags in my cart as I left the store. Off I went and started to go through all the bags and … no receipt!
I'm thinking maybe, just maybe I threw it in the trash. Sooooooo… yes, you know what I did. I went through the trash (there wasn't too much in it, having just taken it out the day before). No, not in the trash. Alright, time to do some serious searching for the receipt and the butter. You know, serious search means SEARCH everywhere you've already searched and then some. So off I go…searching, searching… and…then I had to stop searching and just get other things done.
I don't know why, but I couldn't get the missing butter and receipt off my mind, it was tasking me. Sure, maybe if I had the receipt losing the butter wouldn't be so bad, but losing both the butter and the receipt it was just completely irritating me and not leaving my thoughts. All night long as I went about my normal routine (which doesn't include searching for anything) it was in the back of my mind. I told myself I'm going to clean out the whole pantry tomorrow etc.etc.
Well, I found my grocery list - yes, I'd been looking for that too- and I went through it trying to figure out if maybe I was missing anything else. You know what I mean, it's typical when you lose a bag of groceries you are missing more than one item. I had everything on the list but the butter and that was a little bit of relief. Now I just wanted the receipt to make sure I'd bought the butter. Things happen, groceries get shifted about etc on the conveyor belt, maybe my butter took a little trip over the dividing bar into the next person's groceries, who knew, I sure didn't.
I know this is long but you need to comprehend how much this was bothering me and how intensely I was looking for the receipt I know I had but didn't know where. The butter was questionable, but the receipt I KNOW I HAD THE RECEIPT!
First thing the next morning I cleaned out the entire pantry-- NO BUTTER, NO RECEIPT. I went through everything again (except the kitchen garbage which had become much more full since I'd gone through it two times already). I'm talking every empty walmart bag, every cupboard, fridge, freezer, recycle bin, hubby's garbage can, bathroom garbage cans… all the drawers in the various furniture about the house…outside caterpillar garbage can… yes, I was desperate! You say crazy, I say desperate but sane. LOL
Well, about this time hubby needed his water bottle refilled and so I took it and went to the water cooler. By the water cooler is a small desk. I thought I might as well go through the drawers in that too…though I KNOW I didn't put that receipt in those drawers. I start pulling out a few receipts (one dated for March LOL) and none were the receipt I wanted. I closed the drawers and started to pray. I know it's so silly, praying about a lost receipt for something as small as missing butter, but it was more than that. I was obsessing over this thing and I knew it had to stop. I prayed, I said, "Lord, please help me get over losing the butter and receipt, just take this burden from me. I know that if it was Your will You could produce that receipt, You have that power. Thank you, Lord." There, I'd given it to God, now I had to just get on with things. I took the water to hubby and then went to the kitchen and my jaw just dropped in disbelief!
THERE, right there on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator was a piece of paper that looked like a receipt. I picked it up and it was a receipt. Quickly I checked the date on the receipt… it WAS THE MISSING RECEIPT!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS! RIGHT THERE ON THE FLOOR! I'd been looking so intensely and for so long, and then it was JUST THERE OUT OF NO WHERE! I'd been in that kitchen A LOT the day before dinner etc..etc. etc and that morning getting hubby's breakfast etc..etc.. And that receipt HAD NOT BEEN ON THE FLOOR in plain sight! But there is was!
Now it that isn't a miracle I don't know what is! I know- in the grand scheme of things as already mentioned it's a mini-miracle- "only a receipt" as one member of my family put it, but it was a miracle!
God was teaching me a huge lesson…. The big, the small, the important, the seemingly unimportant… HE IS IN IT ALL and my faith in HIM for ALL THINGS is most important. Not only did He ease my mind, He did it by giving me the receipt. I was and am just floored by it all.
On a side note- there was NO butter listed on the receipt, everything else, but no butter. So what happened to the butter that I KNOW I put in the cart and on the conveyor belt, I haven't a clue and will never know. I didn't pay for it, I didn't lose it… it sent me on a quest for a missing receipt and ended up giving me a MIRACLE. Praise God for His amazing work, His amazing love! :) May, by His grace, I learn the lessons He has for me, now and always! In the love of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, now and always!
No comments:
Post a Comment