Finding God in a Can Opener and Pizza

We love our house and neighborhood for oh so many reasons. One of the reasons why we love our neighborhood is right across the street. The house across from ours went into foreclosure earlier this year and remained vacant for several months. In mid-summer, it was purchased by an older couple, Tim and Lori, whose last name is Brennan and who have a granddaughter named Naomi. It was meant to be.

They recently moved in and we've enjoyed starting to get to know these new neighbors with the crazy name connections. They have proven to be incredibly friendly and just all around great people. I've had two examples in the last 24 hours that have solidified our good opinion of them.

I pulled out chili ingredients yesterday and attempted to open them with our manual can opener. No luck. The blasted thing wasn't rotating so I was out of luck. With Brennan eating and naptime quickly approaching, a few tears were shed as I tried to figure out what to do (that didn't involve opening it with a knife, a saw, or a rock--all ideas courtesy of Google). Inspiration struck when I remembered that Lori wasn't working so I thought maybe I could borrow theirs. As it turned out, they had two can openers. Rather than just loaning me their can opener, she gave me their extra one so I didn't have to go out and buy one.

Then, just today, I pulled into the driveway after returning from Thrive, our church's women's ministry, and Lori was just returning home as well. She came over with a pizza box in her hands and said she ordered a large pizza and wanted to share it with us. Now, I had also just been wondering what I was going to feed Brennan since it was getting past noon, and this answer appeared almost instantly.

With financial pressures looming overhead like a big, black raincloud, it's easy for me to lose God in the midst of it all. I find myself wondering if He really does care about us and our troubles. And then things like this happen in most unexpected ways.

Sometimes God just appears in the strangest places and at the strangest times. For me, this week, He's shown up in the form of a can opener and lunch. For some, that might not be that big of a deal. But it's balm to this stay-at-home mom's heart.