Picture of a Miracle

I was recently reminded of a miracle that took place 22 years ago. The reminder came by way of another unexpected blessing. I’ve come to view these kinds of things as one way God communicates with me.

What happened in August 2019: Our church organized a collection of school supplies to fill backpacks for kids who live in some nearby neighborhoods where funds are tight. Our family is donating some composition books and folders that were bought but unused. I normally use any leftover notebooks, ripping out my kids’ math or science class notes, but we still have some more supplies to give.

But I didn’t want to give without any cost to us. I’ve seen God bless many times because we invest ourselves or invest the money He has entrusted to us to be a blessing to others. It’s part of how He expects Christ-followers to live, and I’m more than okay with that.

So a few weeks ago, I headed out to the local office supply store, armed with a coupon and a gift certificate for $8.66. I sign up for the rewards programs for nearly every store where I shop, and I typically stay on top of the credits, store bucks and similar rewards to apply to our next purchases.

With our kids in college, we don’t really do much traditional back-to-school shopping. So that day, I decided $10 would be my limit, but I would get absolutely all I could for my $10. The photo below shows what I bought; the initial balance for the purchases was $22. But as only God can do, the discounts, coupled with my coupons and gift card resulted in – a balance of $2.85 still on the gift card.

I’m really not sure how it happened, and I think God really likes it that way. A few years ago, a similar thing happened at a local drugstore, where my purchases totaled $20, but with coupons, rewards money and that day’s sale, my total owed was $.01. That’s right – one penny.

In the fall of 1997, our son turned 1 year old. Like most parents, we had taken probably 1,000 photos of him from the day of his birth through his first birthday celebration. These were the days before cell phones or even digital cameras; back then, we typically used an inexpensive ‘point-and-shoot’ 35mm camera. My husband had a nicer (translation: complicated) 35mm camera, but neither one of us had mastered the settings and lighting requirements, so we used the ‘cheap’ camera most of the time.

That fall, a couple in our Sunday school class befriended a young single mom. Her baby was about four months old at the time, and she had many needs for herself and her child. One of the things on the list was a camera; she had almost no photos of her precious little girl.

This need pierced my heart. I couldn’t imagine how sad I would feel knowing that my child was daily changing before my eyes, with no means to record any of the early transitory days with an infant-turned-baby.

My husband and I talked about this particular need, and along with some other things that this young mother needed, we provided a bag full of items to bless her and the baby, including our inexpensive 35mm camera and a couple of rolls of film.

Outside of the couple coordinating the donations for the young mother, we didn’t tell anyone about what we were giving. We both decided that we could get up to speed on the settings and attachments of our complicated camera, and learn how to be real photographers.

Christmas morning, we awakened and enjoyed a fun time opening presents with my family, my parents and siblings, and our one year old son. Nearing the end of gift-giving, my husband opened a gift from his mother.

The torn gift wrap revealed a Nikon 35mm camera. I’m pretty sure it was the model shown here.

At the time, it was very high quality and the latest technology, yet easy to use. We hadn’t told her or any of our family about what we had done, or our efforts to learn to use the nicer camera. For whatever reason, God had moved in my mother-in-law’s heart to purchase us a new camera, even though she had received copies of nearly all of the photos we had taken of our son in his first year of life.

Give. Do. If you are prompted by the Holy Spirit to do something or give something, do it. You have no idea how often you will see a miracle when you just do what the Spirit asks you to do.