I’m sitting sunburnt and happy while Jared builds a couch in the other room.
(We had to dismantle it in order to get it out of the room it was in, in order to fit in our brand spankin’ new sectional which is actually not brand new, but from the KSL classifieds.)
I’m sitting sunburnt and happy because we just whirled home from a 5 day eating excursion to California. Boy oh boy did we eat. And it was delicious. Oh how my heart longs for a delicious sushi joint here that has happy hour every day, and for a pizza place which sells gigantic gooey cookies in silver tins with ice cream heaped atop (so impeccable they have their own name, the glamorous pizookie), and for my mother in-law’s Martha Stewart-worthy lemon bars to magically appear on my counter. Yes, this was a very delicious trip indeed.
The sunburn came from falling asleep in the heavenly weather—imagine my dismay when I stepped outside this morning to SNOW. I hate that trick Utah plays every year. Quite nasty of it to always do that.
Pre-sunburn and pre-eating excursion, I was standing pale and unhappy at the globs of paint on our bathroom wall. Obnoxious Easter egg lilac. Crappy brownish pink. We finally decided on a glorious purple that is divine, and makes my bathrooming far more pleasant these days.
Our free time is spent at Lowe’s, dreaming about wood flooring and sconces and white doors. (You had better go kiss your white doors on the lips, for you are a lucky duck. We’ve had about enough of our poop brown ones.)
So that was April. Oh, and finals. Oh, and my best friend turned 22 and blessed her baby on the same day. Oh, and our ward is now on hold on account of realigning the boundaries of the whole world. Oh, and A MIRACE FROM GOD THAT I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT RIGHT NOW.
We filed our taxes and those jokesters rejected them. THREE times. So we were flailing around, trying to figure out how to make them accept our filing thing so we could get our return so we could pay Jared’s tuition on time. Turns out the only way to make them accept the thing was to mail it in regular, like, with stamps and things of that nature. But snail mail means snail pace moolah—too late to pay tuition at all.
On this night that this is all hitting the fan, I am very whining and poo-pooing everything thinking about all the grimy possibilities to make this summer happen while I go in to brush my teeth in a huff.
AND THAT’S WHEN GOD WORKED A MIRACLE.
Jared called me into the big room. “Hey, babe, I think you should come in here.”
“Ughhh, whaaat.” (I wish there were an accurate way to type what I said. It was so self-pitying and moanful and type cannot express.)
We looked at his financial aid and there, on the screen, was sitting more than enough money for his tuition. From those same federal jokesters and I wanted to wrap them all in a loving embrace I tell you! Because guess what now we didn’t even need that silly tax return because his tuition was already paid for!
I am just letting you know that God is for real.
He knows what’s up and He works miracles for us. Sometimes we notice because we’re already in so much need, and sometimes I think He does it just for the fun of it, like someone ding-dong ditcing cookies on your doorstep.
He ding-dong ditched a thousand dollars on my doorstep this time. Gosh, I can’t wait to see what He does next.
But God is not a vending machine. He didn’t give us that miracle because we earned it with obedience wages or something. We do the very very best we can and He accepts our meager offerings every time. He never rolls His eyes at our embarrassing attempts to give to Him. He blesses us so profusely that we don’t even have room to receive all the good stuff He’s got for us—we just can’t think of it in an “I-do-this-I-get-that” kind of way. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to people who are making really dumb choices. Here’s what I know: when I choose to make my life good and I put every effort in to being as good as I can, He helps me with all kinds of miracles. Miracles like this one, yeah, but ALSO THE MIRACLE OF KNOWING HE IS THERE.
The point is, miracles can happen in any circumstance. And they do! Oh, my, they do!
My quest is just keeping my eyes peeled.
