Manna from Heaven

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not....
"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.''" (Exodus 16:4, 11-12 NKJV)

I am here to say, this still happens.

It all started when I walked into work one day after the previous day had been incredibly slow, knowing that if I didn't make $100, well, it would be bad. I prayed for $100. This is not characteristic of me, but it was a genuine need. That night I made $111 - twice as much as usual.

Then there was a sudden random day that my employer gave me off that I didn't need off, and rather, needed to work. But it was a new schedule and I didn't think to do anything about it this time around and even forgot I had it off. Then on a Wednesday I got a call from the woman I used to babysit for (I had just arranged to start up again for her this fall). Her babysitter was sick and she needed me to come in the next day to work ten hours. I checked my schedule, the next day was the day I had been given off. So I worked for her that day and made $100. The next night at work it was really slow. On average, I need to make $50 a night just to make it by. So I made it by.

Then on Saturday I bought furniture (and got a desk for free), mostly using my parent's money, but I ended up needing to pitch in a bit of my own money too. I dug a little too deep into the money I needed to have on hand as change when I worked. So Zac and I pull in to Taco Bell for lunch. On the ground in our parking space I saw some money. I told Zac and he thought he saw it too. Well we both saw two separate bills lying on the ground. We jump out of the car and grab them - two $50 bills. We decided that we had better tithe our discovery. That night at work I only made $12. So I still wasn't $50 richer than I needed to be, but I wasn't any poorer either.

So Tuesday was horribly slow. I went I think over an hour without getting a single table. But then I got chatting with my first table. I'll spare the details of the conversation, but they wanted to know if I would pet sit for them, their regular pet sitter was going to be traveling to Spain. I said yes, went to their house the next day. Haha, house. Their estate has multiple gardens, a pool, a barn, a cottage, and grounds that I couldn't see the end of. Oh, and I should mention that they have someone who hunts for them. I can bring friends over and swim in the pool and drink their soda. The woman gave me $20 for coming that day to learn what to do (I'm also going to be watering the flowers). I'll be making a decent amount of money for the few days they'll be gone and she's interested in having me come over after they come back home to help her with some projects. Remember I said she gave me $20? Well I wasn't expecting that. I also wasn't expecting a power outage that would close the restaurant that night.

What I have found interesting about this whole experience is that it is very clear I'm being taken care of. I'm not coming into excess money by any means. I am coming into the money I need just before I arrive at would have been a financial crisis. It reminded me of the Israelites, that they were just to pick up what they needed for that day. I would like to get to the point where I'm not living paycheck to paycheck quite so literally. And I would like to be financially secure enough that I don't have to pray for miracles. I think those are good goals. But I'm learning that I can trust God to provide for me exactly how He wants to provide for me. No way of getting me the money He wants to get me is too crazy. He might send me up a swingset for it, He might have me feeding donkeys for it, or He might just toss it on the ground in front of me. What I can know is that day to day, nothing is going to thwart His plan.