“Com’on honey. Let’s fill up the tank and grab a shake while we’re out,” I prodded my less-than-interested wife.
“It’s too hot outside,” she quickly replied, rooted to her favorite recliner.
“We still have that coupon, right? The shake there will be worth it.”
Taking our daughter (always more than eager to eat something sweet), we went out the door, thinking mom would follow anyway. She did.
After filling up the tank, the green light on my cell phone winked at me. A facebook chat: <coming by to drop off the bible> [Alex].
Bad timing. He would have to go out of his way to drop by our house. <Not home> I texted.
“We should just get an ice cream at McDonald’s. It’s closer,” I suggest to my family. It only took us one minute to leave McDonalds after smelling whatever it is we smell at random McDonalds.
“Smells like their milkshake machine is rotting,” said my wife, wrinkling her nose.
So we headed out to the place we planned on using our coupon originally–Steak-n-Shake. Having picked up the shake, we wanted to walk around and eat it, but it was too hot outside.
“Let’s go to Target. It’s cool, and I can get a few more things for home,” my wife suggested. It was down the street. But we cannot eat anything without the proper paraphernalia: napkins. And Target has a Starbucks.
My wife sauntered through the developing line of customers, walking past a tall lanky gentleman.  On her way back, he stopped here midstride.
It was Alex!
He was at his church that day. On his way home, he realized he left his wallet at church! Having doubled his time, he decided to stop at the Mill Mall near us, and that’s when he texted me about dropping off my bible. When I finally responded (telling him we would not be home), he sought food and coffee at Target, one which both of us rarely visited.
Now that’s providential.
The tapestry of decisions that God interwove through those few hours was an eye-opener. We believe in the providence of God. We know we live in the providence of God. But God knows how quickly we grow accustom to His ways. So He throws interesting things in our path as reminders.
This is one of the more pleasant reminders.
Pastor Mathis, I don’t want to take anything away from what you describe as a providential happening, because I believe in such occurrences myself. My concerns about your post are as follows, 1. Was the day in question a Sunday? 2. Do you know that McDonalds are promoting the homosexual agenda? I don’t know about Starbucks but it’s possible they are too. I don’t know about Target either. I don’t think we have Target in Northern Ireland but we do have McDonalds and I think we have Starbucks. We have been boycotting McDonalds for some years now since we learned they are pro-gay. There are no Starbucks near us as far as I know. We don’t go shopping on Sundays and we would never go to a restaurant on a Sunday. I know we can’t boycott every place that violates Biblical principles but we stay out of as many of them as we can.
It was not on Sunday. Although too many Presbyterian and Reformed have a loose view of the Lord’s Day, I do not. I think our children will not have much of an option of not shopping at anti-marriage, anti-christian, etc. stores. But only the Lord knows.