Visual

I love it when I get to see something that has God's fingerprints all over it. I feel like God has been teaching me a lot about His love lately and about exhibiting unconditional love to those around me. He's been teaching me that His love is not based on things I do or even on Him doing things for me. If he answers my prayer with a no or a not right now, it doesn't mean he loves me less. So I guess he's been teaching me about trusting His love without having to have a daily visual or emotional feeling of it. So, when He gave me that visual, I think it made me stand even more in awe of Him and His love and protection.

My visual happened yesterday morning. I was up visiting my sister Rachel and her husband Craig while Matt was away at a conference. Monday night we decided to venture out in the rain to do some fun shopping. We spent about an hour and a half at the mall and then went home to put our boys to bed. Tuesday morning we were sitting at breakfast and I was talking to Matt on the phone. He mentioned that our bank had called and that they had said they had a question. My mind immediately went to all those scare stories you hear about people supposedly getting calls from their bank, but it not being their bank at all, so I warned him not to give any personal information (as if my amazing man isn't smart enough to think of this on his own). Matt went on to tell me how it was funny because when he tried to call them back, it was an actual branch. Then I started to panic. I hadn't even used my debit card and we really don't even use that bank anymore. Then it clicked that the area code of the bank he had received the call from was in my sister's town. I frantically went to my purse in search of my debit card, picturing someone having tried to make a large purchase and overdrafting our account. My wallet was gone. Since nothing else was missing from my purse, I figured I must have dropped it, but it's amazing how quickly you forget what all important things are in your wallet. Long story short, after calling one credit card company, I finally got a hold of someone from the bank who informed me that an employee of that bank had found my wallet and brought it to that branch. I nearly cried with relief. And then I thought about all the other scenarios and realized the amazing visual God had just given me of his love and protection. Aside from the obvious protection of our finances, God also protected me from driving half way home without my wallet. I would only have discovered it when I went to get gas and then I would have been stranded. And what are the odds that an employee of the bank we don't even have here in town, but that does have branches where my sister lives would find my wallet and just happen to be able to take it to work where she could find our phone numbers and call us to let us know? Like I said, it has the fingerprints of God all over it. He's so amazing anyway, but I love it when he gives me a visual.