This may put some of you off reading my blog ever again. I want to share something that happened today…

Due to tiredness, medication and not sleeping last night,  I got on the wrong bus. That meant ending up somewhere I was not meaning to go. However there was blessing in it. I met two folk from my congregation, Holy Trinity, Wester Hailes. On more than one occasion over the course of my illness, at unexpected moments  I have bumped into  people from my congregation who I know pray for me. I usually meet them when I am feeling vulnerable. For example once I met two prayer warriors when I was about to go in for the results of a biopsy. I was feeling shaky  in every way; physically,  emotionally etc. The biopsy was supposed to confirm bad news, but the news turned out to be much more hopeful than was expected.  Somehow it felt the two people I met on that occasion, Ann and Mary, were a sign that God was with me, that all would be well. They felt like guardian angels, sent by God just when they were needed.  Today, ending up where I did not mean to go, I  felt foolish. It may seem a  small mistake to you, but for whatever reason it upset me and even concerned me and worried me slightly. I was passing condemnation upon myself, judging myself harshly. “How could you do that? Stupid!” Meeting Ian and Eileen from my congregation, people who I know pray for me and who have consistently over 11 years and more shown they care  for my family and I, somehow ministered to me an assurance of the goodness and the compassion  and the presence of My Heavenly Father. I was blessed too as they shared a story about how they had experienced the goodness of God just a few moments before we met.

Well, nothing  to stretch you so far in the blog, nothing offensive to the mind so far… but give me time, I am not finished yet! Being in the wrong place, I needed to take two bus journeys now instead of one to get back home. I was five pence short. I knew that before meeting the couple from my congregation. Anxiety  came back again. How would I get home? The very next second there was a clink and there at my feet was a 5 pence piece. There was no one around…

The religious will say I should have handed it in or given it to charity… But those who know the God I have come to know  by expeience will know what I did. I took my bus journeys, well actually a tram journey and a bus journey, with an extra helping of gratefulness, laughter and wonder. I felt cosseted in the care of God.

How did that 5p get there? Well, I know what I think but that would be another level of stretching for many… I may come back to it another day and tell you. Make of this what you will. I am still thanking my heavenly Father and smiling about it all!

I am also praying that you will remember that your Heavenly Father knows your needs down to the last 5p… In fact, He knows your needs even beyond that point. He has infinite resources and an infinite variety of means of getting the help you need to you.

I am not into the so called “Prosperity Gospel.” That may be the most understated sentence I have ever written in any of my blogs! I think Prosperity Gospel preaching  is a twisting of the truth of God – that statement has just  broken the previous record for understatement achieved in the last sentence!! I do believe, however, that our Heavenly Father  knows His children’s needs and can supply them. May the joy and laughter of discovering the truth of that come your way today or soon!

God Bless

Kenny

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