Apparently, summer has decided it’s over. I discovered this in the middle of the night when I woke up cold. I like sleeping in cooler weather, even with windows open, but it felt a bit too chilly last night. I woke up feeling a “I need a blanket!” cold. So, at around 2 am, I went on a sleepy search and found one.
Of course, the blanket had been there all along. It didn’t magically appear out of thin air. It had simply been folded away, waiting for the moment when I needed it.
There are probably several theological lessons here, but I’m resisting the temptation to say that God controls the seasons. We’ve heard that one before.
Instead, I’m thinking about how often what we need is already there before we realize we need it. The blanket was there. I just hadn’t needed it. And sometimes our faith works that way.
Words of Scripture suddenly speak to us in a new way. Hymns we’ve sung for years suddenly become the prayer we need for the day. Friendships we take for granted become a source of strength when life gets difficult. There are small, ordinary things throughout each day we hardly notice, until one day we unexpectedly discover God in them.
That’s, perhaps, one way to think about grace. Sometimes what we need isn’t something God has just given us. It’s something God gave us long ago, something that we’ve finally discovered we need.
God is often at work long before we recognize God’s work.
Nothing about my blanket changed overnight. It was where I left it when I folded it and put it away as spring left and summer arrived. But last night, my circumstances changed, and suddenly I noticed what had been available all along.
Maybe God has already placed people and things in your life that you haven’t yet recognized as gifts. Maybe there’s a word you will need someday. A person who will become important. A lesson you don’t yet understand. A habit of prayer that will eventually carry you. A promise of Scripture that you’ve read before but haven’t yet needed in quite the same way.
We don’t always know what tomorrow will require of us. But we can trust that God isn’t waiting until tomorrow to begin preparing us for it. Sometimes faith is simply trusting that when the temperature drops, there will be a blanket. Because even when we don’t know what we’ll need or when we’ll need it, we can trust the God who does.
The blanket was already there. And so is God’s grace.
Have a blessed, cooler week.
