OUT OF REACH

Standing on tiptoe, I asked myself, “How will I reach those apples on the top shelf?”  A small grocery store is located on the first floor of my apartment building. I had watched for its opening and my anticipation was rewarded last week. In my previous living situation, I used to dread carrying home 5-liter jugs of drinking water, even though the large grocery complex was less than two blocks away. I’d carry the jug in a grocery cart to the edge of the store parking lot before trudging up an incline layered with ice six months of the year.

Today the sun is shining, and a careful eye can see the first evidence of spring as a few blades of green grass boldly expose themselves to the yet cool temperatures.  

As I reached for the apples, a young man approached me and asked if I wanted help which I gladly accepted. I assumed he is the store owner or manager. I picked up a few other things, including a jug of water. At the checkout stand, he asked where I lived and picked up my groceries. I pointed next door. He took my purchases as far as the elevator in my section of the building and then left. As he departed, I thanked him profusely, “Большое спасибо!”

Ten years ago, I would have eyed the apples and, knowing they were out of reach, I would have passed them by.

What was different today? I wasn’t expecting anyone to help me. I believe it was a mixture of determination (knowing what I wanted or needed) instead of giving in to my inherent passivity and the overwhelming goodness of our Heavenly Father that set things in motion to bring the help I needed.

Now, this incident was no big deal, but it helped me understand a process. If you are like me, there may be certain things you have been praying about for a very long time and, as yet, you haven’t seen an answer to your prayers.

God starts where we are today. Do I trust Him today to take care of my needs, to find a solution to a problem that is currently plaguing me, to find an address as I walk in this gargantuan city of 12 million people, to give me the energy to get through just this day? Each time I trust Him to provide for me and those I am praying for, my confidence in His goodness grows. The next thing I know, that thing I prayed about three years that seemed so impossible, so out of reach, is beginning to manifest! I can’t explain how that happens; I just know that it does.

Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. (Hebrews 10:35).