
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Mat 6:26)
Mwas whistled away his favorite tune as he walked to his day’s gig. Since he’d left his last employment only a week earlier, he has had to reacquaint himself to living one day at a time.
You see , he’d gotten married earlier than his pears, more out of circumstances than choice – his girlfriend at 22 had gotten pregnant by him.
With no guts to do what everyone around him in similar situation was doing, abort, he had encouraged his girlfriend that it was better to work hard to support their family with whatever they were able to get.
At that time, he’d been enrolled into a sales and marketing college, but his parents discontinued fees payment when he got into the family way. Out of his decision, without a skill for income generation, he realized he could not afford to be selective on what work he could do. He welcomed every opportunity for work, which were mainly day wages manual work.
As they had stuck together with his girlfriend, now wife, their family had grown to 3 children. It was not easy to support their growing family, but something had happened that had helped him shift the burden from his shoulders. An encounter with Jesus Christ had made all the difference. Over time, he’d learnt to trust God for his daily provision.
When he did not have work, he’d just go out and ask wherever there was potential work. It was on one of those walks some 12 months ago that he had knocked at a gate asking for work.
At first he’d been informed there was none to which he said “thank you”, with a smile. Walking from the gate, he’d sat down at a shed some couple of meters away to rest and consider where to go next. As he sat there, he noticed the gate open and someone beckoning at him to go back.
This ended up being a better day than he’d hoped. Not only did he get engaged for work, it was not to be a day job, but rather longer term employment.
It had since been a good whole year of guaranteed provision every end of month, which had been a big relief. Even though it was not a lot he was very grateful to have lots of time to rest and reflect when he was not at work.
On the flip side, even though he had enjoyed the one year of employment, it was not until it ended last week that he realized how much he’d become out of touch with the daily reliance on God and His promise to supply to his needs.
This morning, he was not whistling because of confidence in the guaranteed of salary, but rather the opportunity to once again rely on the One that never fails on His promise to supply, and He alone.
He thought of how the previous night, he had received a call for today’s work, just as they were having their dinner with his family. The meal was to be the last if nothing came up.
It was out of this consideration he had decided to leave the house without breakfast to allow the children to eat what had remained of their dinner. He knew that he’d get something to eat, only he did not know what avenue it’d come through.
Whistling all the way to work, Mwas found the gate-man already opening the gate for him as he’d been alerted to expect him. He immediately, after the morning pleasantries got to his work which constituted trimming the lawn and weeding the flower garden.
Barely 30 minutes into the work, Mwas was startled from his work focus by the rather loud footsteps of a lady walking towards where he was. He did not at first recognize the lady, but as she came closer, he realized it was Linda, the property manager .
“Hi Linda, how are you doing?”, Mwas asked her trying to decipher the ‘ no nonsense’ look on her face.
“This is serious matter Mwas, you cannot believe what just happened”.
“OK, slowly, what happened?”
“I was in my office , and was preparing to take my breakfast. When I tried to open the flask, it popped with a big sound, the top giving way while leaving the inner glass intact.”
“OK, and then?”
“Do you know what that means? It once happened to my own sister and she has since had problems with her stomach – you’d think she’s pregnant, while she’s not. That to me is a sign that someone is after me to bewitch me. I cannot drink that tea.”
“How is it that you are a Christian and believe in those things? There is nothing like that. There was simply too much pressure built-up in the flask that caused the popping.”
“If you are such a believer, I dare you come drink that tea.”
“What? Let’s go.”
With Linda on the lead, they both went to her office to prove that it was not witchcraft. Served with the excellence deserving of an Estate Manager, Mwas delightfully ate the continental breakfast (something he had not had for a while) as Linda watched in anticipation. (Does that remind you of Acts 28:4-6?)
After the second cup, Mwas had had enough, and invited Linda to share hoping he’d convinced her there was nothing in the popping of the tea flask.
“No I can’t drink it…you finish it up.”, Linda responded to the invite.
“Oh , ok, in that case just allow me to share with my friend” Mwas replied as he stood up going out to share the tea with the gate-man that had opened for him earlier.
He then went back to continue with his work with fresh energy.
Nb: this account is true apart from a few things changed for prose – don’t you just love how God’s promises outworks uniquely in each of our paths through our day to day circumstances?