The Surprising Significance of a Trip to the Thrift Store

I went to the MAAC (Medina Area Association of Churches) thrift store today.

It was half-price Monday a week early, since they won't be open next Monday because it's Christmas Eve.  So I got a major haul of sweaters!  I'm looking forward to cutting them up and making new monsters and owls and woodland creatures in the New Year!

 Luna had to inspect them and take in all the new smells before I threw them in the washing machine. (there were so many of them, I had to do 2 loads!)

 Terra decided she had to inspect them too.

"We approve, Mommy.  You may wash them now."

But there's a deeper story behind the trip to the thrift store that this pile of sweaters came from.

Last night, on our way home from church, I was talking to my husband about how I wanted to go to our local thrift store in the morning. I was frustrated that I couldn't though, since I'm still not allowed to drive due to my sprained ankle. I am supposed to wear the "Air Cast" brace until if doesn't hurt anymore...and in NY, it's illegal to drive when you have any kind of cast or brace on your driving foot.  Plus, if my ankle isn't completely healed, I am concerned about re-injuring myself if I have to suddenly slam on the brakes for any reason. (it IS deer season after all.)

 Anyway. CJ had to drive into the office in Rochester the next day, so he couldn't take me to the thrift store on his lunch break like he could if he was working from home.  So I just resigned myself to not going to the thrift store and that I'd go sometime in January.

Well, this morning, my friend Char called me to tell me she was going to the thrift store and to ask if I wanted to come with her!  Some people might say "conicidence"...I say it was God giving me a gift.  It seems like a silly, little thing, but I was very encouraged that God orchestrated things to give me this silly, little thing that I wanted.  And I was in need of encouragement from Him.  I had spent the previous night weeping after checking Facebook and seeing all the posts about the shooting at the school in Connecticut and being overwhelmed by the evils and godlessness of the world.  And I feel like this "coincidence" today was God's way of letting me know He is still here.  It's like when the silliest little random gift that a parent gives a child helps the child realize how much their parent loves them.  A trip to the thrift store was a little random gift that helped remind me how much my Heavenly Father loves me...and loves me in such a personal way.

EDIT: (I feel a bit guilty and silly for being so encouraged by an unexpected trip to the thrift store when there are people out there who will never see their babies grow up.  But I believe God loves us and has a plan, even if we can't see the good of that plan.  I can't pretend to know why what happened on Friday happened...all I know is that I trust God, and trust that, as awful as this tragedy is, there is a reason behind it all.  It has been these sort of thoughts that have helped me in the past to not despair in the face of not being able to get pregnant and have children of my own.)

I pray the Lord gives comfort to the people who were so much more deeply affected by what happened on Friday... for the friends and family of the children and teachers who lost their lives.  I pray He comforts them as only He can.  I pray they can see and trust in Him and realize that God is there even when bad things happen.

Bad things don't prove that God isn't there...they prove how much we need Him.