The Lord Cares About The Small Stuff (Miracles)

* Incident in the Garden

* The Lost Diamond

* Stranded at 23 below

* One Minister's Goutee'

Many times, I have heard that the Lord God doesn't care about the small things in His children's lives..that we just go to Him for the big stuff . When the Lord said: “I Am with you always.” Listen to these four short accounts of just how close the Master truly is to those who simply stop and believe God for His grace in times of need.

Incident in the Garden

Let us now go back in time to an early Spring's day. My husband, at that time, was a conductor for the Union Pacific Railroad. And, when he got the call to come, he had to go.

As with some, we were preparing to plant our garden for the coming year. And, we were blessed with a wonderful rototiller that ran and then didn't. On this particular day, we had used the tiller and then shut it down and had returned to finish what we hadn't gotten done.

The string was pulled. The tiller didn't respond. He tried again. And, the tiller didn't respond. This went on until my husband was exhausted. He knew he must get it running or he would have to go to work. It was urgent that he finish that day or all was for nothing. He was so upset and tired and yet tried everything that he could do on his own to start that tiller but nothing seemed to work.

As I saw the stress in his eyes and the weariness of his heart, it was decided to just stop what we were doing and look up to God and ask for His help.

After all the tries and after all our human effort, I said to my husband, Richard, “Crank the tiller just one more time!” His answer was, “It has to be flooded by now.”

I said again, “Crank it just one more time!”

He didn't even give it the usual yank and lo and behold, the tiller started with just one light pull.

God had heard the cry of one of His own. The prayer was said in total faith and belief in His undying love for us 'at all times'. And, God answered in one amazing way.

The Lost Diamond

It was in the summertime. It was during this time that one day I had looked at my hand and found the diamond out of my engagement ring had disappeared. As the diamond was handed down from his father to us due to the death of my husband's mother, the diamond was very, very special to both of us.

With each passing day, I spoke more and more to the Lord about finding that diamond. One particular morning, I was praising the Lord as He had just blessed our family so very much. But, I'd tacked on a funny p.s. “Thank you, Lord...You have done so....much for us! But...You haven't found my diamond!!!” It was said almost as a tease or a jester of laughter to the Lord.

It happened to be on a wash day. Richard had a day off and was relaxing on our couch. I was still thinking about the lost diamond. So, I asked him, “Rich, what are the chances that we'll ever see that diamond again?” His answer was , “A billion to one!”

As our washer and dryer were down in our old basement, I went on about my chores and was just putting clothes into the washing machine. When all of a sudden, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart. “Phyllis, if you look down to your right, you're gonna' find your diamond!” The words came back the same way I'd prayed them with laughter and joy.

To be honest, the first thing came to mind that I'd totally lost it. How could this be? But, I obeyed the beckoning of the Holy Spirit, turned my head to the right and looked down to this small pile of tiny stones and dirt lying on the floor.

I said to myself, “Hum...now, which little rock would I choose to be my diamond?”

I looked, stooped over, and saw this tiny pointed looking rock, lst one I picked up, looked at it, turned it upside down. And, it was my diamond!!!!! Praise His Holy and Wonderful Name!

A billion and one chance? Not that day and it was found by a most loving and caring God. The stone was taken to the jeweler and I wear it proudly knowing God's miracle of finding my diamond.

Stranded at 23 Below

It was the winter of l974. That year, there was a spell of very cold air that swept down out of Canada along with very high winds and severely cold temperatures with windchill a minus 28 degrees.

At that time, we had two children, ages three and four. My sister also had one daughter, age four.

Her daughter and my little girl were born one day apart. My sister and I went to the hospital in two separate states on the exact same day and had our two lst daughters. But, that's another miracle in itself. Let us go on to this account of God's love and grace...

It was early morning. The temperatures were far below zero with high winds and ice on the highways. It was during that time that my sister called to inform me that her husband was on his way home from work and had slid off the highway and was stranded and that we had to load all our children into my car and take off and rescue him. So, we warmed up the car and piled in, went to get my sister and daughter and took off.

It was on the way back on a lonely deserted highway that my car stalled and on a hill at that.

We knew it wouldn't be long before it would get extremely cold in the vehicle and our children were in danger. Try as we may, that car just would not start.

We knew we could do nothing. So, what else could we do? I stepped outside the car into the cold and wind and cried out to the Lord for His help. The prayer was concluded and I went back to the car.

Within moments, out in the quiet lonely highway, came this pure white truck. And, Praise God's Name, he stopped, got our car running and followed us back home and then the truck was gone.

Just know that God is closer then you think in the most mundane moments of our lives. We only limit His interaction by the words of our mouths and faith in our hearts.

He's there for you. You can count on it! Amen?

Jesus lives and just awaits your call. Mark ll:22...'Have Faith In God'!

One Minister's Goatee

Here is a funny, yet totally true, occurrence that happened some years ago:

Our family have been a good friend to Pastor Lary Long for many years. In fact, he and I took part in our church's Vacation Bible school for a few years before he'd gone into the ministry. Needless to say, we've always been very close.

On one particular morning, I had awaken to the strangest dream. I had seen our friend, Lary, wearing a goatee. Well, he had never ever had a beard much less a goutee.

I remember on that particular day, our church sponsored what we called 'Golden Agers'. It was once every month and we would host seniors and serve a luncheon for them and prepare a program.

After the luncheon, I returned home and the phone rang. It was our friend, Lary, who at the time was living in far Northwestern Iowa and our home is in the Eastern part of Iowa.

He said he was coming home and he had a surprise for me. Right away, I knew from the dream what the surprise was.

I told him, “No, you don't.” “You've grown a goatee!”

Needless to say, Pastor Lary was just flabbergasted as he most definitely had grown a goatee.

Talk about the Lord having a sense of humor and caring about the small details of our lives. To this day, we often talk about the time when the Lord had told me ahead of time about one minister's goatee.

Always remember...the Lord cares about every detail of our lives...right down to the number of hairs on our heads....Luke 2l:l8.

Trust Him for the minor details in your life today. You may be surprised just how close He really is.