I hope you’re enjoying the Christmas season and finding blessings as you prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth. I know I am. I’ve dialed down my stress level considerably by choosing minimal decorations. Since we’ll be traveling for 10 days over Christmas, we’ll get to enjoy other people’s decorations instead of our own.

But I saw a post this morning about a friend who had to replace her dead computer today. (Thankfully, she had backed up everything and didn’t have that added stress.) But Anne talked about the unexpected financial uh, surprise!

Hearing her recount her story and God’s provision took me back to December of 2010 when we (unfortunately) met two of our three of our insurance deductibles (health & auto) and incurred a major expense that, sadly, wasn’t covered by our homeowner’s insurance. (I’m not bragging, believe me, just stating facts.)

• Home: An intruder—of the black and white smelly variety—destroyed our A/C duct work, and we had to replace all of it. (Admittedly, even more painful than writing that check was handling the assault on our olfactory senses.)
• Auto: Between two separate auto mishaps, we met our insurance deductible. (One vehicle went on the Car Heaven.)
• Health: Finally, on December 26, my son underwent an emergency appendectomy. (The good news? No wait in the ER at 8:00 a.m. the day after Christmas.)

Through it all, we learned some things about how God provides for us. (Note: These verses are from the ESV.) God’s provision is always:

• Faithful: Matthew 6:26— Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
• Timely: Matthew 6:11—Give us this day our daily bread.
• Sufficient: Philippians 4:19—And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• Abundant: Malachi 3:10—Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

So, whatever need you’re experiencing today, you can trust that God sees. He knows the depths of your pain, your struggle. He rejoices alongside your triumphs. Thanks to his continuous presence, he knows your needs long before you do. I hope you take comfort in that today. Be blessed!