I almost vacuumed a frog!!!

Yep. You read that right! I was cruzing right along when I noticed a spot I'd missed next to the baseboard. I came back for a second swipe and it moved!! This poor little froggy was only 'bout the size of a nickel. He was pretty cute!

So of course my brain went to thinking if there could be a lesson here . . . . . no, I don't think there's any possibility of me vacuuming up prince charming when he comes along . . . . :0) But as I thought about it, this little froggy was a blessing. He made me smile, and best of all, he made my sister (who wasn't feeling too well) smile. :0)

Have you ever tried to get rid of a blessing that God gave you? (whether on purpose or accident, haha) It made me think back to my college years. It was my turn to give the nightly devo for our floor. God had just "given me" Ephesians 3:20-21, and I'd been reading "God's Smuggler To China", so those where my "texts".

I like the NKJV on this verse best . . .

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory . . . 

And this is the story I read from "God's Smuggler To China", by Brother David . . .

"He continued to speak of the many other miracles which Mrs Kwang had told him. One that touched me particularly was the account of a co-worker whom the Kwangs affectionately termed "the Old Man". He had come from a very poor family, and much of his early life had been a daily struggle. This preacher, whose life had been one of great fruitfulness for his Lord, had been forced as a child to leave school, because he had never been able to master reading.

"In fact, his family was the poorest in the whole village," Joseph explained. Because of his poverty, when the Communists came to power, they made him chairman of their area - to prove a point. They gave him a big house to live in and double rations of rice. But he loved the Lord so much that he just used his home for worship meetings and distributed all his rice among the hungry believers - until he ran out himself.

"Eventually the government became aware of his activities and ordered him to choose between his new-found position and his faith. Knowing that he was going back to life-long poverty, he nonetheless told them, 'I will not disobey my Lord.'

"He once again became the poorest man in the area, without house or accommodation. This happened during the early days after Mao took power, and the Christians he knew were either too poor to help him, or were themselves in prison. One person did manage to provide him with a small room to use, but he had no way at all of obtaining food. For some days he lived there, with water as his only sustenance until he grew weak with hunger.

"One morning, when he awoke, he noticed a big hole in the wall, and did his best to repair it. He brought a number of stones to block it in. But within a few hours, there was another large hole, and he decided that for some reason, this was from the Lord. Later he saw a large rat come through the hole. The rodent made several visits and brought him sweet potatoes, nuts and vegetables."

I interrupted him. "For the old man to eat?" I asked.
"Yes," he repeated. "The rat brought him food Otherwise he would have starved to death.

"Every morning the rat kept coming to him, bringing him enough food for that day. Sometimes, when he was expecting someone to visit him for the day, the creature would bring him a double portion of food."

"How long did this go on - a few days?" I was still incredulous.

"Several months."

I shook my head and Julie turned to me. "But honey, we have accepted all that for Elijah, when he was fed by the ravens at the brook. Why couldn't it happen in twentieth-century China?"

I guessed it could, but it was still quite incredible.

Julie squeezed my hand. "How big is your God?" she smiled.

Wow! Just reading through this story again has been a huge encouragement to me! That's something my Dad used to say to me alot when I was younger - "How big is your God?" :0)

The point of my devo was to talk about how amazing God is, and how He can to anything . . . SO much MORE than we could ever think or imagine. One of my friends brought up how the man had tried to patch up the wall, and, without knowing it, stop God's miraculous provision. She wondered, how often do we do things like that? . . . . things like . . . . like vacuum up a frog. ;0)

If you have a story of an unexpected blessing or a miraculous provision, I would love to hear it! :0) God is SO good!!