riches

So, yeah, a cool thing happened.

Last night (Saturday), N & I went to River Nile for some soup and to hear Hannah Miller sing and play. Our server, Ryan, has just begun coming to the college prayer meetings at our house on Thursday nights. As we ate, Nathan felt impressed by the Lord to ask Ryan about his fundraising for his mission trip to Africa this summer. Ryan, a little discouraged, looked down and mentioned that he did not get all the money that he needed for the trip. When he walked away, N & I both felt that we should give him money towards his trip. I opened my purse, tore out a check, and N asked me how much I felt we should give. I gave a number I thought was really more than we could afford, but I felt like I was giving all I could (after all, I am on summer pay and Nathan has no job for the moment). And Nathan said that he felt we should give him double that. I trust Nathan, but my eyes probably grew very wide, as we wrote that check and slipped it to Ryan as we were leaving.

Miraculously, the Lord gave us great peace, and neither of us really thought about that money later that night. In fact, we didn't remember until today in church (approximately 15 hours after we gave Ryan the money) when a woman neither of us knew or had ever seen came up to us and said, "The Lord told me to give this to you."

And it was a check. For the exact amount we had given Ryan.

How awesome are His ways...so much higher than ours and how special that He would allow us to be a part of blessing Ryan. It's His goodness and extravagance...the kind that causes Him to plant beautiful flowers on the tallest, most dangerous mountain peaks, even when there is no one there to appreciate the beauty. Beauty for beauty's sake. Goodness for goodness' sake.