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| Photo by: Joshua Martin |
A small gift wrapped box was carefully placed just days before to represent “presents from God” in our wooden manger. Years before, my husband built a manger which we used for Christmas gifts; it had become a tradition and reminder of what Christmas was really all about. This year on December 1st my husband was informed that he no longer had a job. To make things more bearable I had the kids began to look for "presents from God" as they are all around us. Even when we don't have our focus on the fact, that every good gift comes from the hand of our Savior, these presents, do indeed, come all year long. We just don't pay attention. We needed to focus on the good things God has given us with a heart of thanksgiving.
Index cards were in the box and as we began to see God’s presents we were to write them down and place them in the box. Then we would, as a family, thank Him.
I met my friend at her little church to see what food items could be used by our family and our strict gluten and dairy free diet, to my surprise there were quite a few food items we could use. I brought the food home and wanting to be thankful for each little thing I counted and made a list as I was putting things in our pantry. Let me give you the list of things we received.
This list may seem insignificant to the ordinary reader, but let me tell you how God cares about the little things, down to intricate details. Things like cocoa, icing and bananas.
The 92 cans of food and the 4 cans of juices are things that did not go to waste, as they are all things we used regularly. The boxes of cocoa really tickled me, because my daughter, as a part of her breakfast, made herself a chocolate smoothie with cocoa powder almost every day for the past 7 years. That cocoa was a special gift to her from God. I was exuberant when I saw it and I knew that was placed in there just for her, as she was really struggling with the fact that her daddy was going through another job loss and the pressures it put our family under.
That one container of icing, made me laugh for joy. This may seem crazy to people who can eat anything but there are many things our family cannot eat that others take for granted. Once in a while, I actually buy icing, this particular brand, as a treat for my kids and they eat spoonfuls of it! I know that probably sounds disgusting but it probably isn't much worse than eating candy. Much candy contains either dairy or wheat and my family cannot eat it!! So this was a real treat for my kids. They loved eating the spoonfuls of icing for a treat.
The bananas were the biggest blessing and there were 2 of them. My son Josh, has Aspergers Syndrome, which is a mild form of autism. He would take banana and peanut butter on gluten free bread, to school, for lunch Monday through Friday. Trying to always keep bananas on hand made my life a little easier. We call banana’s “Josh food.” If we run out of bananas we may endure some cabinets banging and hearing a meltdown about how we have no food to eat. When the supply of bananas begin to run low maybe down to only 1 or 2 everyone knows not to eat them lest we endure some grief from Josh.
Upon seeing the bananas, he looked at them a little puzzled and said in his deep monotone voice, "Why only 2 bananas?" We had one banana already so I told him that with the other 2 he would have enough to last until Thursday. He replied, "I just need ONE more." One more would make lunches for him all the way until Friday. I assured him that God would supply his daily bread.
The next day another friend, called, “Our family was given some fruit and there was too much for our family of 3 to eat. Could you use it?” If so, she could bring it over immediately. I welcomed her in when the doorbell rang, and she put the fruit on the counter. Among the fruit of apples, pears, and oranges there was one lone banana!!
The kids were all excited when they saw the one banana, my daughter, matter-of-factly, said, "there's Josh's other banana!" He smiled knowingly; he knew it was from God, just for him. God really does supply our daily bread, or in this case, our daily banana.
Index cards were in the box and as we began to see God’s presents we were to write them down and place them in the box. Then we would, as a family, thank Him.
I met my friend at her little church to see what food items could be used by our family and our strict gluten and dairy free diet, to my surprise there were quite a few food items we could use. I brought the food home and wanting to be thankful for each little thing I counted and made a list as I was putting things in our pantry. Let me give you the list of things we received.
92 cans of various things
4 cans of juices (tomato, orange, apple, vegetable)
2 boxes of cocoa
2 bags of rice
3 bottles of BBQ sauce
2 apples and 2 bananas
1 container of icing
This list may seem insignificant to the ordinary reader, but let me tell you how God cares about the little things, down to intricate details. Things like cocoa, icing and bananas.
The 92 cans of food and the 4 cans of juices are things that did not go to waste, as they are all things we used regularly. The boxes of cocoa really tickled me, because my daughter, as a part of her breakfast, made herself a chocolate smoothie with cocoa powder almost every day for the past 7 years. That cocoa was a special gift to her from God. I was exuberant when I saw it and I knew that was placed in there just for her, as she was really struggling with the fact that her daddy was going through another job loss and the pressures it put our family under.
That one container of icing, made me laugh for joy. This may seem crazy to people who can eat anything but there are many things our family cannot eat that others take for granted. Once in a while, I actually buy icing, this particular brand, as a treat for my kids and they eat spoonfuls of it! I know that probably sounds disgusting but it probably isn't much worse than eating candy. Much candy contains either dairy or wheat and my family cannot eat it!! So this was a real treat for my kids. They loved eating the spoonfuls of icing for a treat.
The bananas were the biggest blessing and there were 2 of them. My son Josh, has Aspergers Syndrome, which is a mild form of autism. He would take banana and peanut butter on gluten free bread, to school, for lunch Monday through Friday. Trying to always keep bananas on hand made my life a little easier. We call banana’s “Josh food.” If we run out of bananas we may endure some cabinets banging and hearing a meltdown about how we have no food to eat. When the supply of bananas begin to run low maybe down to only 1 or 2 everyone knows not to eat them lest we endure some grief from Josh.
Upon seeing the bananas, he looked at them a little puzzled and said in his deep monotone voice, "Why only 2 bananas?" We had one banana already so I told him that with the other 2 he would have enough to last until Thursday. He replied, "I just need ONE more." One more would make lunches for him all the way until Friday. I assured him that God would supply his daily bread.
The next day another friend, called, “Our family was given some fruit and there was too much for our family of 3 to eat. Could you use it?” If so, she could bring it over immediately. I welcomed her in when the doorbell rang, and she put the fruit on the counter. Among the fruit of apples, pears, and oranges there was one lone banana!!
The kids were all excited when they saw the one banana, my daughter, matter-of-factly, said, "there's Josh's other banana!" He smiled knowingly; he knew it was from God, just for him. God really does supply our daily bread, or in this case, our daily banana.
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