How CAN I say Thanks??
Apr 04, 2010
From the beginning of this year, with our move to Canada imminently looming nearer, Leonard and I sat with pen and paper in hand one Monday morning…day-off stuff you know…to ‘plan, sort out’ get this moving thing to Canada organized properly. We went through our list of what to sell, what to disconnect, who should collect which things when etc. etc. you know…all the stuff moves are made of.
Of course, we prayed…asking God for his perfect plan to be worked out in our lives, which is always so much better than our little scraps of paper called ‘the plan’!
Standing at the end of this process, I can only stand in amazement at how God himself orchestrated every detail in our lives over the past couple of months.
Firstly Canadian friends from Zimbabwe that were moving to S. Africa contacted us early on, asking if they could purchase all our major appliances and bigger furniture items…good check that off the list…
Other people handed me or emailed me lists and asked if this or that item was available…which all seemed to be available for everyone asking! Good, check that off the list.
Then, it’s funny how weird or odd things get left until the end, that loose carpet in the living room, that set of drawers in the store room, those last small kitchen appliances shoved in the back cupboard and that stove we have literally moved around the world with…each and every item, someone absolutely needed or asked for at the perfect time!
The people buying our last bed could wait to collect until the last day we needed to sleep on it…how amazing! The same people buying our car, have said…use it until you leave…all such huge, specific details covered by God’s perfect plan for our lives.
Leonard was approached by a friend in church and told, ‘look, sell your motorbike now, ahead of time, and you can use mine until you leave’. Wow, what generosity and also a huge blessing since the bike has been our second vehicle.
I guess the ‘funniest’ or most detailed evidence of God’s hand in all of this was when Matthew’s teacher from school, shyly wrote in his school diary, asking if just ‘by chance’, we would have a toaster, sandwich maker or microwave oven for sale. She and her family had spent quite a few years in the USA and had come back but didn’t have any S. African voltage appliances. Oh and by chance did we also just happen to have any transformers to sell, since they also had some appliances from America?
I read her note and laughed out loud actually, because I had just spoken to Leonard and said where on earth am I going to get rid of these last few things that I forget to ask people if they needed…namely, a toaster, a sandwich maker and the microwave oven??? I could only smile, knowing these were God’s fingerprints of love on our lives, taking care of the absolute minutest detail of our move to Edmonton. What could I say but YES teacher, I do have all these items left, the very last things left and also just ‘happen’ to have not one but two transformers in perfect condition for her American appliances!
Another chuckle we had in the process was our dear domestic worker Agnes, organized with a relative to come with a bakkie (pick-up truck) to collect a ladder, a folding table and a couple of bags of clothes I had given her. They came and as they began carrying these things out, we kept finding more and more things for her load…blankets, a huge rocking chair, a few plastic garden chairs, etc. etc. until they had the ‘typical African’ load, hanging over the sides of the bakkie, tied on with ropes for dear life and oh yah, the ladder even made on top of the load! Her husband laughed telling us, she told me we were just coming for a ladder, which he was thrilled with since he could use it for his job, but left, dragging slowly down the road with their heavy load.
And all I have thought of lately, is I have to say thanks to the Lord for working out each and every one of these details, but how can you possibly say thanks for so much that he has done for us? This is only one incident in a lifetime of ‘coincidences’ which I know are the specific hands of God working out so many intricate details in our lives.
So, I will say thanks, but with my entire life; with my strength, with my words, with giving all I have to love, pray, preach, raise kids, reach out to others, or cook meals. May EVERY SINGLE small effort in my life, just be a way to say thank you Father….may I continually give you all the glory for your amazing love and care in my life!!
