Abundance

At the beginning of 2022 I decided abundance was going to be the word that I would focus on improving for the year. Life happened and I forgot to focus on abundance. When inflation started to pinch out that feeling of abundance this fall, I saw my reminder and started to wonder how I was going to find any abundance in my life. Christmas was coming. Challenges and trials were closing in, and abundance, felt like something others were blessed with. I felt like the more I tried to find abundance the less abundant my life was. I was trying to find it, but like many things we chase, I felt abundance was fleeting.

Weeks went by and with a tiny glimmer of hope it seemed that Christmas might just turn out okay. It wasn't that we were poor, or that our kids would go without, but it certainly didn't feel like the abundant Christmases we had experienced in the past. I just felt that finances were tight and we were stuck. After weeks of searching for abundance the Lord taught me a lesson in trusting him.

The last day of school, before Christmas break, my high schooler was going to drive to school so that if he wanted to come home early he could. The students were given the option to buy their way out of class in order to raise funds for charity so we wanted to give him the option to buy his way out of class. Being my introverted child, he was NOT interested in attending the high school assembly at the end of the day. With a potential snow storm coming that afternoon we decided he would just take the bus to school that day. As I finished up work I got a text from him. He was telling me he might need a ride home from school. I thought it was odd, but figured it wouldn't be a big deal to swing by the high school on the way home. As I pulled up, here he came with this giant 50" tv box.

What in the world is he doing with that? Did he win that? How? I opened the van and he slid the tv in and hopped in. I started asking my questions and he told me of how his teacher had bought raffle tickets for the students in his class so he had one raffle ticket in the drawing. They pulled a name for the drawing and the student wasn't there so he would forfeit the tv. They pulled another name and when he heard his name he thought, "wait was that my last name?" He ran down the stairs to claim his prize and sure enough it was his raffle ticket they had pulled. 

Hundreds of other names and some kids had many entries and yet, my son, with his one and only ticket. The son who was only there because of a pending snow storm, came home with the free tv. After I got home, I had to head across town to make a purchase. As I was driving I was thinking about all of the improbability around him winning. Then the thought came into my mind. 'Marlies, if I can do all of this to help your son win a free tv do you really think that I won't help you get through this rough time?'

 

Tears came to my eyes, and suddenly all of that abundance I had been seeking was right in front me. I may not have won the lottery, but in my mind it was close enough. I don't know what the Lord has in store for me, but what I do know is that he gave my son a tv. Maybe just maybe the whole point of him winning was just so the Lord could tell this worried mother that he loves me and that everything will be all right. The truth is, I think it will be, because God loves me enough to give my kid a free tv.