Like Manna (Gabrielle)
October 9, 2008 by sharppointythings
You know that saying “What’s slop for the treasure is food for the garbageâ€? Oh wait, maybe it’s “One man’s goose is another man’s ganderâ€. Well, anyway, there’s a saying that’s all about that. I like that saying. It keeps me expectant for good things.
So today I got hit in the back with a rotting pear. I got hit because I was shaking the tree to get off all the pears that we couldn’t reach. And they fell to the ground all around me (some trying to go through me) like a rain of manna.
Crystal has really been wanting to do a bunch of canning. The idea of taking raw materials and turning them into food that will keep for a while is just thrilling to her. The only problem is that she doesn’t have a space for “Canning†in the budget. There just isn’t money for it. So Crystal has been praying that God would provide food that we could can. Specifically, she was praying that He wold provide free food that we could can.
Crystal had to do some rabbit stuffs (did I mention she’s raising rabbits?) which involved getting in touch with the woman she bought some rabbits from to do a rabbity switch or something. While they were talking the woman mentioned that she had some fruit trees if we wanted any fruit. Well, yes, we would love to have some fruit. So we headed out to her farm. On the way, we got a call from a woman at Providence who’s in-laws have apple trees. She said they were out picking apples and that we were welcome to some if we could look around for some jars for her. They live out in the country so it’s harder for her to get into town to poke around in the thrift stores. Crystal thought it was a sweet deal so now we were on the lookout for jars. We get out to the rabbit farm and Crystal did the rabbit thing while the kids and I picked pears and apples. We picked seven buckets full of fruit (this is where I get hit with the pear, by the way). We get everything all packed up when Crystal mentions canning to the rabbit woman. She says that she has a bunch of jars and canning stuff she doesn’t use anymore. Would we like it?
Well, yeah, that’s kinda no-brainer. So we packed the van full of boxes of jars and lids and free fruit. Tuesday we’re going to our friend’s house and having a big apple canning party. There’s a good chance we don’t have quite enough jars, but I’m sure God’ll take care of it. He rained down free fruit and jars like manna from Heaven; it was just in a non-painful way. That pear on the other hand….
I appreciated reading this post. I’m feeling very discouraged today. There’s a wide gap between what I’d like my life to be like and what it actually is like. Progress in closing this gap is slow, and it is way too tempting to think that there is no progress and feel like I’m just biding time until I die. I have had numerous experiences of God providing manna in my life, including the best gift in the form of Jesus. He has proven time and again that He is a loving Father who is near to us and willing to provide for us. It was good to be reminded of this through your blog post. Thank you.