The Miracle – Part II (The Lessons)

One of my dear husband’s favorite sayings was, “The thing about life is you get the lessons AFTER the test.”  Oh how true and how wise!  That’s exactly the model for this two-part blog series.  Last week was FULL of tests for Angie and me, and thankfully, God came through big time whether we passed all those tests or not.

If you haven’t read last week’s post, you DEFINITELY need to do that before jumping into the lessons this week.  Here’s the link for you.

My mind was spinning with all that God was laying on my heart since my “miracle find.”  I enlisted the help of Angie as I attempted to make a list of lessons learned on this journey, because she clearly played an important role in this adventure.  Even though we have a pretty extensive list, we both felt that God would be adding to it in the days and maybe even years ahead.  That’s an exciting thought!

I could write a separate blog post on each and every one of these lessons, but I chose to list them all here as a group, chronologically as the story played out, so you can also marvel in the TOTALITY and the TIMING of all we saw God doing. 

So, here are the lessons we’re honored and humbled to share with each of you.  May they bless you as they have us.

1. When trouble strikes, look FIRST to God because He will do something in it, and through it. Don’t miss the powerful lessons God teaches us because of our trials.  They are the most permanent.
2. Listen for God’s voice – the more you do, the more you will recognize it. That obviously means that we need to be quiet before God so that OUR voice isn’t screaming over God’s.
3. God speaks through others.  Don’t discount that all-important source of wisdom and guidance. Yes, God speaks through His Word, through His Holy Spirit and through circumstances. But God also speaks through fellow believers. They are a powerful source we shouldn’t ignore.
4. Turn the control over to God instead of trying to formulate a plan yourself – and using all YOUR efforts. This was essentially the lesson from that first conversation with Angie, and it turned everything on its head!
5. Pray through your doubts, but continue to trust God to do great things. This can be SO hard!  It’s one of the tests I don’t think I passed with flying colors. I wanted to trust God completely, but I found myself doubting through most of those two days.
6. Be patient!  God’s timing is always perfect. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, so ask God to help you tap into that powerful attribute.
7. Stand strong, even in the face of intense pressure or resistance. To be fair, many of my friends who suggested or urged or pleaded with me to go check the grocery store parking lot are also believers. So whom do you trust?  You trust God’s voice.  See #2.
8. Pay close attention to “coincidences.” When Angie saw my phone at her house, she knew it meant God was leading her to talk to me about her new-found parking lot mission!  I’m so grateful she was paying attention.
9. Speak truth to others when you feel God leading you that direction. Angie could have ignored that “coincidence” and convinced herself that she must be mistaken about this. She was also concerned about “butting in” where she shouldn’t.  But her leading was strong so she acted on it.  Good job, my friend!
10. God doesn’t change His mind, per se, but He does redirect as He sees fit. Don’t go to the parking lot now…but go NOW.  I couldn’t help but think about the time God prevented Paul and Timothy from going into Asia Minor. After the Holy Spirit had prevented them from speaking the word in the province of Asia… Acts 16:6.
11. Look where God leads you, not where you want to go. Could God have been any clearer?  He led me DIRECTLY to that missing pendant.  And all I wanted to do was stay home and watch the KC Chiefs game!
12. Be grateful!  Yes, a thousand times, yes!  Take time to offer heart-felt gratitude to God that He cares about us so deeply; He can and will show up in our lives in such a personal way.
13. Recognize His love for you when you see Him moving in your life. This spoke volumes to me after I had grieved the loss of this pendant. Don’t doubt His love, even before you see the results of it.
14. Share the stories that shine a light on God’s love and His greatness. Of course it’s wonderful that Angie and I were “players” on the stage of this particular story. But it’s not about us. We both feel like shouting from the rooftops because God is so amazing!  We want everyone to know.  It’s a huge encouragement for believers – and perhaps an eye-opening challenge for those who doubt this God.
15. God is STILL a God of miracles!

I want to say just a few extra words about this final lesson.  It is so easy for us to think that the God of the Bible with all those amazing feats, has closed shop on miracles.  But the God who created the universe and everything in it, the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who created a nation as numerous as the stars from an old couple, the God whose Son came to earth to take the penalty for our sins – that’s the SAME GOD who orchestrated every step of this story, culminating in the miraculous recovery of that precious pendant.

I love to think about how it all happened.  Did an angel place it there seconds before I walked over to it?  Where was it the day before? Did God blind the eyes of the many who parked in those two places for those 33 hours?  Did God protect it from the snow removal process?

No way to know.  I do love the angel theory, however!  The bottom line is that it doesn’t really matter HOW God did it all; it just matters that He did.  And I couldn’t be more grateful for or awestruck by it all.

Thank you for coming on this journey with us.  I pray you’ve also felt those same emotions. Please consider sharing this incredible story with your friends and family. To God be the glory!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 9:1