All These Things

I was the pastor of the Adventist church in Meridian, Mississippi. One day we received an unusual letter from my mother, who lived Florida. She wrote that she had received a phone call from a friend who told her, “I feel impressed that your son, who is a pastor in Mississippi, needs a new suit. I am going to give you some money to send to him.”

“That’s strange,” I said to my wife. “I don’t really need a new suit. I bought one just a week or two ago.” We were puzzled. It was true that our finances were tight at the time, and it had been difficult to get together enough money to buy the much-needed suit. But why would the Lord impress our friend with the thought that we needed help after we had managed to get the suit?

Later that same day, when I arrived home, I found our dog, Pug, in a big fight with another dog. I grabbed Pug’s collar and pulled her away from the other dog. In the confusion of the moment and the excitement of the battle, one of my legs was mistaken for the other dog. By the time I got the dogs pulled apart and calmed down, my new suit had a huge hole in it.

I went into the house and said to my wife, “Look at my new suit! It’s ruined, and we don’t have any money to buy a new one.”

She replied, “Remember that letter you received from your mother just this morning? Remember she said that you should be getting some money to buy a new suit soon?”

I had forgotten about the letter. We read it again, and it still said the same thing.

In a few days we did indeed receive the money in the mail, and I was able to buy another suit. Diane and I were reminded of the comment in The Desire of Ages that says “our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing” (p. 330).

As we have experienced challenging financial situations from time to time, my wife and I have often thought of the wonderful promise that Jesus made to meet our needs and the way it was fulfilled in Meridian, Mississippi.

“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . . For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:31-33).

By Walter Brown

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