Teapot Miracles & More

God cares about all of the details in our lives, even the tiniest ones. While I am convinced that He is more concerned with our character then our comfort, I believe He likes to make us smile.


I just got to experience my own little “5 loaves & 2 fishes” miracle in my coffee/tea pot. At the start of this week (or maybe it was over last weekend) I ran out of coffee. This shouldn't be a big deal, as I really don't drink that much coffee, but things are really tight around here right now. Like, tighter than I've ever experienced. There's no running out to buy coffee. So I panicked. What would I drink? Well, we have the family size tea bags for making iced tea, and I started using my coffee pot to brew it hot, and was adding cream and sugar and enjoying it. I think, honestly I've been enjoying it more than coffee. It's been delicious. Well, I got down to my last two tea bags....brewed the next to last bag and felt that panic. I don't want to run out of tea, too. Then the most beautiful expression of God's provision, in things that are even merely just wants, happened. I poured myself two cups of tea, then the next time I went in there the stuff had turned into this concentrate that was incredibly strong, so I added water. In fact, I filled up the coffee pot. After two more cups of tea, it happened again. The tea bag was not in the water, or the top part - I had thrown it away. God was multiplying my tea, I'm certain of this. He was showing me that He knows that things are tight, and that He's got this. That one pot of tea lasted me for two days, I think I refilled it four times, maybe five.

Then He did something even greater. This is a hard one for me because it comes with a failure that is proving hard for me to swallow. I missed my first payment on something. I don't miss payments. It just doesn't happen. But I did. (I told you, things are really tight around here...) It was to the credit card that I've owned for 7 years. My flawless history with them now has a blemish. I called and talked to them and thought it was going to work out okay, until today. (It's actually better than okay, I'm getting to that!)

I spoke with a very pleasant woman who informed me that they were opting to close my account, but that they had a hardship option for me if I was interested. She thanked me for my 7 years of excellent payment history, lowered my interest rate, and put me on a 5 year repayment plan. My last bill said that if I paid the minimum payment every month it would take a whopping 23 years to pay it off. God's really been speaking to me about not being slave to the lender. He'd been working on me with it for about a year, maybe a little more. With all of these unexpected expenses, along with how much work my Bulldozer missed, I've realized how pressing it is that we get out from under this burden of debt. God is showing me that I don't need drive-thru, and I don't need to stop at the gas station for anything more than gas. He is teaching me the true difference between need and want.

There is something beautiful about the fact that I messed up, I selected a moderate to heavy burden of debt, and trudged down my path with it. I accepted it, and made my payments responsibly. Yet, I messed up. That's not how God wants us to live, then I messed up again, because I wasn't prepared, an unexpected medical catastrophe (that God took care of me through) caused financial turmoil. I missed a payment. And God used that to open to door for that card to no longer be a temptation. We simply don't have it anymore. And 5 years is better than 23...and I'm wondering if we can do it in less time than that?

God is watching over us, and He is bringing good things out of one of the most challenging seasons I've ever walked through. What has God brought you through? Did you recognize His hand in it at the time, or was it upon looking back that you realized how much He had orchestrated?