God our helpful friend

I was sitting at the downstairs computer getting some things ready to mail out and I heard my wife call out "Could you grab me a pair of white socks from my top drawer?" which is upstairs. I didn't really think about it, I just broke away from what I was doing and bounded up the stairs to get her a fresh pair of socks. As I came out the door of the downstairs office and she saw me, she said "Oh, you're down here, never mind honey, I can get them myself."

I was already on my way and it certainly wasn't a task that needed any deliberation over, so I just said "I don't mind", grabbed her a pair of socks and returned back to work.

The day before I'd had a similar experience with God. I had prayed asking for help with my recent unemployment and meeting the financial difficulties associated with it. I asked specifically for help meeting this month's bills, finding ongoing income, and for help in digging us out of our backwards situation.

In what I assume was a response to that request, these three things happened: My brother called and asked if I needed some short-term work, a person who owed us some money called to get the address to send it to, and my sister spent some time helping me line up a possibly lucrative business deal. It was one I had been inquiring about but she took the time to make a convincing presentation of the merits, and it worked, I should have that project beginning mid next week.

The interesting thing is that all of that was things I could have done myself. I could have called to see if that money was going to be sent soon, I could have called and asked my sister to check in again on the possibility of the business deal, and I could have called around to friends and relatives to see if there was any work available.

When I was asked to grab the socks for my wife I couldn't help but think that God sometimes responds in the same way, not annoyed or telling us "you could do that as easy as I can", but instead, happy to help, a true friend, willing to pitch in alongside us.

I am convinced that the Psamlist recognized this of God when he wrote "no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." (psalms 84:11) Romans 8:32 has this to say: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

This is just one small insight into God's relationship with us, and it is not "stand-alone". We need to study and be aware and continue our learning, because sometimes God uses delays in answers to our prayers to teach us, as when Jesus delayed healing Lazarus until he had died.

But this post is just about a glimpse of God our helpful friend, who helps us just in love, not always to teach us something.