How often do you have conversations with God? I really mean conversations. Like He’s sitting next to you and you say, Dear God, I really need you to help me. Or, dear God, you have so truly blessed me, thank you. And then the conversation continues. Just like that…off the cuff. Really I’m asking, do you “connect” with God? Is he connected to you, is He (or She) your friend, your companion?
I must admit, I am not the poster child for daily devotions. I (perhaps unfortunately) do not set aside a certain time each day for prayer and reflection. But I can say that I feel that most of the time God is with me and we can talk whenever I like. Actually, to be truthful, I mutter to myself that God might be super busy at that moment, handling problems in Syria or in detention camps of child migrants, or in hurricane devastated areas, and thus sometimes (in my musings that is) I imagine He has delegated an angel to hang out with me. But either way, I often talk with God.
Let me give you an example. A few years ago there was Hurricane Andrew. It hit South Dade County Florida as a category 5 and our house, along with thousands of others, was destroyed. As you can imagine, when all the houses, stores and infrastructure in a large area are destroyed, rebuilding is not easy. However, we fortunately had good insurance and we found a contractor to rebuild the house. I, our 3 kids, 2 cats, and 1 dog moved in with my parents here in Connecticut while my husband stayed in the area so he could get back to work. 10 months later, as soon as school was out, we all, minus animals, returned since our house was soon to be finished and we were told we could move in. However, it wasn’t soon finished. It did not have a certificate of occupancy and thus it had no power. We owed the contractor $50000 on our contract, but since the house was actually not CLOSE to done, and no work was currently being done, we did not pay him. We now had no place to live. Ah, thank you God for kind friends. Over the next number of months we moved with garbage bags full of our possessions from friend’s house to friend’s house. Over this time we were sued by the contractor for non-payment, official types would knock at the door with subpoenas, and once the builder and some bully boys with guns showed up at a friend’s house where we were staying.
Mostly I managed these situations by myself as my husband needed to continue working. But he was a rock for me. Over and over he would say, “Priscilla, it’s just money (which we had very little of) It’s not our health…It’s just money.” Sigh…
Was I still a nervous wreck? Yes. Was I hysterical? Almost. Did I pray? Talk to God? Constantly. This is the first time that I got in the habit of constantly imagining Him right next to me, chatting, talking, telling me over and over, “Don’t worry, it’ll work out”. I leaned on Him, I talked with Him pretty consistently and He/She was there for me. He abided with me. Always. He very clearly answered me…”It’ll be okay, DON’T WORRY”
God, yes it was God, got us electric power on Wednesday, the day we picked up my parents from the airport. The day before Thanksgiving. The house was still not done and we found someone else to do a lot of the work while my not particularly handy husband tiled the halls and the bathroom. We spent the remaining contracted money on others in order to finish the house and 3 or 4 years later the lawsuit was resolved in our favor. By then, my husband had lost his job and we moved up here to live with my parents. Thank you Lord God.
Thank you for always being with me. It DID work out, my husband found work, we bought my parent’s house and I learned that God is really ALWAYS truly there for me. God truly abides with me, and with us.