Just over two months ago, I wrote about “Saying Goodbye” to my home and my neighbors on Fifth Street. When I wrote this post, my emotions were still resisting the thought of a move.
At that moment, in the midst of swirling emotions, I couldn’t have imagined what lay on the other side of the move for me. What seemed like a death to my desires was actually the beginning of a beautiful new season of life.
Only a day after I made the decision to move, God gave me a sweet indication of what He was up to. I was reading from my One-Year Bible when Psalm 68:5-6 leapt off the page at me:
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families . . .
Wow. God had still not given me my desire for a husband and a family of my own. But, He was meeting my needs in another way. He was placing me in a family. (Did I mention that I moved in with a family?) They travel for most of the year, but I was able to spend a couple weeks with them before they left, and was amazed at how quickly I felt right at home.
All too soon it was time for them to leave. Again, though, God provided another “family” relationship. My neighbors next door “adopted” me in a sense. I’ve had several meals at their kitchen table, “danced” in the living room with their toddlers, celebrated their son’s second birthday with them, taken their youngest on a walk by the river, and more.
Why do I share this with you? Because I know I can’t be the only one who sometimes feels that God is withholding something good from them. And I suspect I’m not the only one who can become so fixated on what I don’t have that I miss the unexpected ways God’s meeting those very needs.
What is it for you? What do you tend to fixate on, mull over, or cry about? Would you be willing to ask God to give you eyes to see the ways He’s providing for those very needs to be met—even when it looks so different than what you imagined?
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