Our Dad Owns the Orchard
I (Elizabeth) think God has a lot to teach me about trusting Him with finances. Don’t get me wrong, we are not hurting financially. God has provided over and over again. We are richly blessed!
Our church is doing a sermon series on Mark. A couple weeks ago and covered the story of feeding 5,000 men. Jesus has compassion on a crowd in a desolate area without enough resources and feeds them from 5 loaves and two fish. He multiplies abundantly!
Pastor Brooks gave a math problem:
Billy has two apples. Johnny has none. If Billy gives two apples to Johnny, how many apples will Billy have?
Our brain thinks 0, but Pastor Brooks was painting the picture of the beauty of life when you belong to Christ. Math looks different.
In the math problem with Billy and Johnny, Pastor Brooks challenged us to rethink the problem only this time noting that Billy’s dad owns the orchard. When Billy gives Johnny his two apples he is never ever going to go hungry. His dad owns the orchard and will always provide enough apples for Billy!
I came home and just cried. I think I’ve felt a lot of heaviness in this process. With the many agencies we’ve looked at the costs feel like a gut punch. How are we going to raise or save $60,000? Not only that, how could we ever raise $60,000 again, should we ever want another child? How can we be generous with our money, replace a 20 year old car, take a vacation ever again, if choosing to do so means delaying our chance to ever have a child?!
The truth is, our dad owns the orchard. We don’t have to hoard or worry about our apples. We can give away apples because our dad owns the orchard. We can trust if God wants our adoption to happen he’ll provide, and if he wants it to happen again he’ll provide again.
So I’m going to keep praying about why I have such a hard time trusting God to provide when He has in my life over and over again and I’m probably going to buy a painting of an orchard as a reminder. Just since hearing that sermon Mike and I have had a grant come through, a possible connection to a foundation that helps assist with adoption, and a family member reach out saying they want to help. Each time my eyes well up with tears. I imagine my God looking down at me like a father to his worried little daughter and just saying “Elizabeth, don’t worry, I own the orchard and I’m going to take care of your family.”
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[ Matthew 6: 25-27
If you want to listen to Pastor Brooks’ sermon. Click below. https://graceb3.org/resource-library/resources/fruit-and-faithfulness/
