James 24:7

Our beautiful grand daughter, Sarah Isabella, made her entrance into the world on Friday, February 24th.  She is gorgeous even if she does look like her daddy!  (Her mom did a splendid job of ushering her into this world!)

A couple of days after her birth we learned that she has some medical challenges.  That scared us to death.  To be drawn and quartered by your own emotions is quite an experience!  To simultaneously feel supreme joy and supreme fear is a wrenching thing. To trust in God and brace for the worst is a heart-rending experience.  To stand prepared to defend your beloved ones against an unknown and invisible threat is to be shown an utterly helpless fool.

As the week progressed we gained a better understanding of her challenges and were relieved to learn that she will live a normal life with the help of medicine.

Let me tell you...grace can feel like exhaling.

I started searching  the Internet to help my daughter find the best way to give a pill to a newborn.  I was so excited to find a reference on a bulletin board from a mother who recommended a particular device that she had found to be the perfect solution to the problem.

I emailed my daughter the link that described the device.  When she read it she felt there was something familiar about the name of that device.

As it turned out, one of my daughter's dear friends had given her that very device at a shower a couple of weeks before the baby was born.  At the time she received the gift, my daughter wondered why she had been given that particular gift.  After all, there was no reason to believe there would be any need for it. 

Isn't that something?  The specific thing she needed was provided even before anyone was aware that she would ever need it!

To me that just shows that God drops these little hints...these little crumbs...these tiny clues to remind us that though things seem dark that He is ever-present, ever-involved, ever-caring. 

God knows our need even before we do!

I wonder how often things like that happen in our lives.  And, I wonder how often we take notice of them.  And, I wonder, even when we do notice them, how often we pass them off as mere coincidences or insignificant little accidents of chance.

I believe that even while we are stumbling in the dark that God drops these hints to remind us that He meant it when He said that He would never leave us nor forsake us.

Maybe we just need to open our eyes a bit more to see God's hints!