Orchestration
A few months back I received a text message that my aunt from Arizona would be driving through and wanted to meet for lunch. I was excited to see her and also invited my mom and sister to the lunch date. It would take place in a nearby town and so I scheduled time off from work.
Later that day I saw a Facebook post that a new store in town called Fashion 15 would be having their grand opening the same day. The store offers clothing and jewelry all for $15 or less. The first 100 people through the doors would receive a punch card good for one free item each month for a year. I decided that I would attend the grand opening, try my luck at getting a punch card and have plenty of time to go to lunch.
I was looking forward to the day off and having a couple of fun activities scheduled. When I arrived at the store there were over 300 people that had shown up before the doors were opened! That store knows how to throw a grand opening event.
As I looked around at the merchandise I found a few cute items that I decided to purchase and then I found the checkout line. With all those shoppers you can imagine how long those lines were. While in line for about 35 minutes I was able to people watch. There were all ages present in the store and some had their arms overflowing with selections, while others had only a few items.
Earlier that morning I prayed that I would have an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life that day. There was a cute girl in line behind me and we chatted a bit while in line. As we neared the checkout counter there were a few tables set up with trinkets, books and mugs. One of the mugs said, “Happy Divorce – we never liked him anyway.” She laughed and said, “I should get that.” I asked if she was recently divorced and she told me she was going through a long one. I told her that I was sorry to hear that.
Just before I reached the cashier I knew this was the moment I had prayed for and I asked the girl if I could pay for her selected items. She looked surprised and said I didn’t need to do that. I told her that someone had done a nice thing for me recently and I wanted to pay it forward.
She had two shirts and two pieces of jewelry. The cashier said, “Someone must love you,” when I told her to add the girls’ items to mine. I gave the girl a “You Matter” card with her shopping bag and said that I wished her well and to have a good day because God loves her.
Look at how many things God orchestrated to make this happen.
- My aunt traveling through the area (she was on a 3 week driving trip and our meeting was to be on that exact day)
- Her phone call to invite me to lunch (in another town that would require me taking time off)
- Time off from work to attend (I would not have gone to the grand opening because it was during work hours)
- The Facebook post about the grand opening (out of hundreds of posts I saw this one)
- Long checkout lines (a gift from God)
- Standing in line by “the one” in 300 that God wanted me to reach that day
- A coffee cup that had been made and placed in the exact right place for that exact moment to strike up a conversation
- Provision from God to pay for the items
- An opportunity to let the girl know that she matters
God is so good! I’m in awe of His precise orchestration. He does this all the time and invites us to be apart of what He’s doing. I’m sure there were even more details to this meeting, but the point is that God is limitless in the ways that He will choose to reach us with His love.
My prayer
Father, thank you for letting me be a part of Your work to reach people with Your love. I’m in awe of the lengths You will go and also reminded that I should have the same limitless mindset in reaching the lost and hurting. You did this for me Lord, now let me do this for others. In Jesus’ name, Amen
Where does my help come from?
Luke 19:10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”