It's The Little Things.

I am blessed. Often that word is used when something good or exciting happens to/for us or those we know. For example, this week I heard two*big* blessings: a friend finding a future spouse and a little life that is on the way. Those are very exciting, but I also like to see the blessings in unexpected cases.

For me, I experienced some blessings that shouted God's faithfulness and love of the little details. Let me explain..

Thursday night I drove down to Philly and parked my car on the right side of the street. Friday morning I planned to run an errand but I never got around to it. Normally when I leave on an errand and then return, I'll park my car on the left side of the street instead of the right for the simple reason that it is right outside my sister's apartment. Since I didn't go anywhere in the morning, my car stayed on the right side.

Little did I know how important that would be!

It was round 1:45 when I put my nephew down to take a nap. I sat down on the sofa and as I did, I heard the wind rushing through the tree leaves outside. Thinking nothing of the loud "wham", I continued doing what I was doing. But then I wondered what that noise was.

I looked out the window and noticed a tree limb resting on a truck parked out front. I went outside and was horrified by what I saw. Here the wind had blown a tree over by its roots, and what I thought was a tree limb was actually the entire tree resting on the truck. The entire driver's side was smashed in, the windshield was crushed, and the hood was bent at an odd angle. The rest of the truck was *fine*, but that didn't matter because the damage was complete. The brand-new truck (the guy had just bought it recently) was totaled and useless.

I was stunned and shocked over the damage. And then the thought hit me: *I* usually park my car in that spot on a typical Friday!!!!! I looked across the street to where my car was parked and noticed that the tree (which fell from the right side of the road) missed my car by about 5 feet.

WOW.

My car was protected by the same God that gave the car to me in the first place.

After I went back inside, I thought about what would've happened if that would've been my car. And then the second thought hit me: I just realized Thursday that my car insurance wasn't renewed automatically like I thought it was supposed to be. My car insurance works on a 6-month cycle, and since this is the first time I would have to renew it, I didn't know what *normally* happens at the end of 6 months. God is good!

Then as I was driving home last night on dark, country roads, my heart stopped when I saw what I thought was a dear... it turned out to be somebody's mailbox :o). So I continued through the woods on winding, curvy roads while I softly sang to myself. I had just gone around a curve and hit a straight part of the road when the words "I'll have a new life" stopped on my lips as I slammed on my brakes. Right in front of me were two dear, calmly standing in the middle of the road as if they owned it and looking straight at me. My dad has told me that dear usually travel in groups of three so I was searching the fields on both sides of the road for the third dear. The two dear walked away and I nervously approached the part of the road that they had occupied moments before, but I never did see the third dear. God is good!

Then today the teenagers went to a corn maze nearby, so I was asked to help put together the lunch for the teens. We just made hoagies and apple crisp, but it was so much fun because it reminded me of working in the kitchen at Winter Camp and getting up at 6:30 to feed 85 people! The nice thing about working in the camp kitchen is hearing the kids tell stories about other camps they've been to where the food was disgusting, but then hear them say, "But this food is the best!!!" We (the kitchen crew) truly believe if the food isn't good, then that's all the kids will think about instead of the preaching. So we make it our personal goals to give the kids the best food possible.

So anyway, we had fun in the kitchen putting everything together. I love working with Mrs. Lytle, who is the main cook. She's so much fun and so organized!!!!!! After the teens were all gone and the kitchen was returned to it's sparkling condition (well, this was the church kitchen where sometimes we have unexpected visitors, the four-legged kind, so maybe we left it better then it sometimes is;)) we girls (four of us) stood around talking for an hour. Poor Mrs. Lytle only has two boys :D, so she often counts on these *cooking times* to get in her girl talk :o). It wasn't much, but it sure was nice to just chat with others and share funny stories! God is good!

Blessings can sometimes be big and sometimes be small, but the most important thing is no matter the size of them that I reflect the thanks back to the Giver...

~"Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow"~