God Answers.

I am sitting on my bed, surrounded by piles of books and a basket of unfolded clean laundry. Finals week begins tomorrow.

Rain is falling outside. There’s a quiet pattering on the windows that I’ve come to love. It makes me think that I’m 20 something years old, living in a shabby apartment in downtown Seattle, and it’s a cold rainy day. I’m warm in bed, with a cup of something hot, and a good book.

But I’m not. I’m about as far away from that as I am from Seattle in distance.

I’m taking this moment to pause, because I am delighted. Despite the fact that this weekend has been so filled with heartache and anger and doubt, my heart is so full.

Why?

Because God answered. God showed up. Every single time I needed it this weekend. God showed up in a pair of heart shaped sunglasses, which the little girl inside me has been dying for. God answered when the friend I’ve been praying for showed up at church. God really answered when the sermon was changed from ‘generosity’ to ‘the importance of the gospel’. God showed up in an email from a professor entirely out of the blue, and the kindest words from a friend.

And what is so unreal to me (still) is the time and manner in which God moved. Not in the moments that I thought I needed it, not in the time I would have preferred, but exactly when He intended it to.

His ways are higher than my ways.

His thoughts are higher than my thoughts.

Here I sit, toes wrapped in wool socks, the soft sound of a gentle rain in the background, surrounded by Christmas lights and paper snowflakes, I am so blessed.

I am thankful that God does not give me everything I want, when I ask for it. I rejoice in the fact that He knows exactly what I need, just when I need it.

And so, to inspire my studies, and perhaps yours too:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. “ {Hebrews 12:1-3}

Just 2 more days, and I can gladly say that this semester will be at its end. 

-K