Jesus loves new bikes...and little lasers...because he loves little boys.

I woke up this Saturday with no plans at all except to pal around with the kids (those are my favorite Saturdays).  I told my wife, “let’s do something fun today, that doesn’t cost money!”  She reminded me that the Zoo was closing in only a couple of weeks and we should take advantage of our season passes before the season was over.  So our plans were made.  We got ready as quickly as a newborn and a Saturday morning will allow and we were ready by 11:30 or so.  As Rachel was herding the boys into the minivan I went across the street to get the mail.  I found waiting for me there a nice, and completely unexpected, check!  Praise the Lord!  I asked the Lord quickly if there was something specific we were to do with this money and I got no immediate answer but Rachel quietly reminded me that the boys were in desperate need of new bikes.  The budget has been tight lately, REALLY TIGHT, I’m sure you ALL are feeling that right now, and there has been NO room for bike money.  Thinking this may be the only time that we would be able to afford new bikes for the boys for a long time we decided that is what we would do.  After a great time at the Zoo we went to Wally World and looked at the bikes.  The price of bikes, it seems, has followed the trend and gone up just like the price of everything else.  We were just barely going to be able to afford it and we wouldn’t be able to get the ones they wanted.  I was disappointed.  I was grateful for the opportunity to get them bikes at all, but it broke my heart to see them wanting on thing and getting another.  So we decided to check at some other stores.  As we were leaving Aidan reminded us that we had promised him a few days earlier he could have a laser pointer he had seen at the checkout counter.  Needless to say we were stretching just to buy the bikes, lasers were really out of the question!  We told him he would have to wait ‘til another time for the laser.  He accepted this pretty good naturedly because of the promise of the bike.  In the parking lot on the way to the car Aidan was behind me jabbering away as always when I heard him say, “oh look daddy I found a piece of money”.  I turned around expecting to find him holding a penny or a nickel and saw him unfolding a 20 dollar bill!  I looked around to see if anyone was close that might have dropped the money but there was no one.  Wow thanks again Jesus!  So we went to a couple other stores to see what there was and we found the bike Aidan wanted for 20% off!  Hallelujah again!  So to make an already long story a little shorter.  Not only were we able to get new bikes for the boys but we got them the ones they wanted AND yes we got them the little laser pointers as well, all without spending a dime out of our weekly budget.  As we left the store we prayed together as a family just thanking Jesus for being so wonderful to us that day.   Rachel and I were in tears hearing our children rejoice in the overflowing generosity of our amazing provider.  As we prayed I said, “Thank you Jesus for loving us and for loving new bikes”, and Aidan chimed in from the back seat…”and little lasers!”  Yes Lord, and little lasers too. 

Thank you Jesus for giving us the opportunity to teach our children how much you love us and provide for us even in the hard times.

Amen