God's provision for his children

Many of us have heard the words, "God provides" or sung the lyrics "My God will provide all your needs according to his riches in glory..."  But when it comes to real life, how often I wonder if that is true.  This morning I want to take a few moments to recount a story to you that happened yesterday.  It is a story of how God provided for our family even when we hadn't asked for it.

In our family, we do things economically.  We have to, 5 kids makes it a necessity.  So when it comes to haircuts, my wife cuts everyone's hair.  That only leaves one person in need, my wife herself.  For some strange reason, she doesn't trust any of the kids to cut her hair (the 5-year-old recently cut two big chunks from each side, saying "They matched, daddy!") and my jokes about Sinead O'Connor leave her uneasy.  Over the past few months, she has been mentioning her need to go to the hairdresser, but due to a variety of family issues we just haven't gotten around to it.  So we decided to ask one of our neighbors, who is a hairdresser, if she could cut my wife's hair here at the home in trade for something.  She couldn't because of a business agreement she had with her salon not to moonlight.  Fair enough, so we dropped it.  Last night, she called to tell us she had entered my wife in a drawing for a free haircut at the salon and she won it.  So this morning my wife is off getting her hair cut.

God is good, and even answers prayers we don't pray.  It humbles me and brings me back to the passage in Matthew where Jesus says, "Are you not much more valuable than they [the flowers of the field and the birds of the air].  Your heavenly Father knows what you need."  May you be encouraged this day, that God is aware of all you need and he will provide it according to 'his riches in glory.'