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Financial Fankfulness

Have you ever had a friend tell you a long-winded and unnecessarily protracted tale, had them laugh like a drain and expect you to do the same, and then say: "I guess you just had to be there"?

Well, now its my turn.

Next week is Christmas, and we are pretty homeless. People are kind, our nomadic lifestyle is easy compared to some, and we have enjoyed the diversity of foodstuffs that we have been so generously offered. However, things progressed from being comparatively stressful and depressing, to being tearfully disastrous a couple of days ago when our bank card was refused attempting to purchase petrol, and we discovered that our bank accounts had £1700 less in them than we had anticipated. Tracking back on 6 months worth of bank statements finally yielded the mundanely depressing reasons that dog all of our steps. Should have noticed earlier? Probably. Having several current accounts is lovely when you have money in them, but paying for an extension and emptying cash into a bottomless pit of plaster, UPVC windows and other fascinating sundries has revealed what we had previously missed about our cashflow.

Unfortunately, explanations do not put food upon the table, nor presents in the pillow cases. Nor do they dry the tears of an already terminally stressed wife. Not much laughter so far, huh?

We believe in a God of grace. Such a God isn't the Fairy Godmother over humanity who dresses his children in cotton wool, shields them from pain and grief, and is the immediate panacea for all our ills. Sometimes our sadnesses are our own fault, and God allows us to hurt. Those grieving times can be growing times.

Sometimes we hurt inexplicably. Circumstances can be blindingly painful, and there is no rational reason. Often we face traumas that threaten to overwhelm us, and God doesn't explain why. He doesn't have to - he is a Sovereign God! There are times, though, when he does unusually gracious things - his intervention into Sarai and Abram's childlessness, Job's restoration and super-abundance, wine a-plenty in place of six pots of water at a wedding feast, etc. This has been one of those occasions. I would have been miserably willing to undergo affliction and lack - after all, many others have to - but God had other plans.

Hurry up, I hear you say. OK, I'll cut to the chase. Within the space of two days, I have had an unexpected cheque from Powergen (our gas/electricity provider), to the tune of £700 returned overpayment; a cheque from the Inland Revenue for £588.66 for overpaid taxes; a gift of £100 from a lady at my last church; and a gift of £100 by hand from someone in the congregation here, who 'felt prompted' to give. Had we 'let slip' our predicament, such mercies would have been partially explained. We didn't. God is just kind.

I reckon we have reasons for praise. Would we have praised God anyway? Yes. In the words of the hymn, 'Jesus doeth all things well' - all of the time. For you, this post may seem trivial - it may even seem a little annoying; for us it is a mark of the presence of a loving Saviour who turns our mourning into dancing in many different ways. These financial blessings won't allow us to paint our town a celebratory shade of mauve, but at least we are no longer badly overdrawn, our children will receive some modest gifts, and we will be able to sleep without the spectre of financial adversity.

We are thankful to God. 'Nuff said.