Perfect Timing

Last Wednesday I signed up to run a meal to a friend with a new baby. After living off of other people’s generosity for weeks on end while the Man was deployed and I was on bed rest with the twins, it’s now a never ending source of happiness to me when I get to take someone else a meal.

Ironically, however, that same night, a different friend dropped by with a meal for our family, hoping to encourage our family while the Man waits to get back on two feet. We laughed about the timing, and I threw our gifted meal in the fridge to be eaten the next day.

What I didn’t realize was that Thursday would turn out to be a doozy, between teaching my last full class for the year, sitting in traffic for an unnecessarily long time (thanks, DC), and making not one, but two library runs when we realized that all the books the Man had used for his thesis had been due back the day he had surgery. And the funny thing about getting library books from a Marine Corps library? They are not lenient about late books. Should’ve seen that coming.

So when the kids and I limped home (metaphorically, I’m not actually limping any more, thank goodness) nine hours after we’d left that morning, I cannot tell you how glad I was to just reheat a full meal while snacking on the brown butter cookies that were supposed to be meant for dessert (they were an excellent appetizer).

We were halfway through the meal when I realized that if I hadn’t signed up to take the meal to the friend the night before, I would’ve eaten our gifted meal then…and been left scrambling to cook after our unexpectedly long day.

By blessing someone else, I’d been blessed far more than the original giver had even anticipated.

I’m holding that story in my heart right now to remember, and I keep finding another story butting up against it.

Two weeks ago, a submission I’d made to a well known website was (kindly) rejected. I was, quite naturally, discouraged by this, but decided to go ahead and post it here, hoping my words wouldn’t be wasted. The very day that I posted, I heard from a handful of readers that they had really needed to read those words on that specific day.

If my submission had been accepted, it wouldn’t have been posted for several weeks. God knew those friends, however few, needed it sooner. His timing with it, just as with the doubled up meals, was perfect so that he could provide for the needs of his people.

These two instances were the kind where I didn’t have to wait months or years to see the good. It’s not always this way.

Sometimes the pain we suffer through seems pointless and wasted, and we forget that God is working all things for our good. The rejection, the illness, the broken relationship, even just the tiny inconveniences along the way, seem to come without rhyme or reason.

But this week, through a doubled up meal and a timely-for-someone blog post, I was reminded that nothing is wasted—not one thing—and that we serve a God who gives with good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over (Luke 6:38). He loves to give blessings on top of blessings at just the right time.

And that kind of perfectly timed gift is worth watching for.