It’s the little things that really seem to make life matter. A light dusting of snow falling the day before my birthday, finding a hidden koala bear while geocaching with friends, making it safely through St Louis traffic. That’s when I feel closest to God. I’m not going to lie. I doubt more than I should. I often assume the worst is bound to happen and am usually shocked when everything works out just fine. I’m the queen of wondering what if I get lost, what if I got the time wrong, what if I wrote down the wrong number? Wasted energy on phantom troubles, and yet God still sees me through.
Maybe it’s silly but being a January baby I’ve always felt that having snow on my birthday is like getting a birthday present from God. This year I’d already rationalized that it was too warm for snow talking myself out of getting my hopes up… and then it snowed. A light, soft snow just enough to cover the ground and then it melted away.
I hadn’t expected much for my birthday this year. I was in the processes of packing for a move and just didn’t have the energy or inspiration to plan anything, but God took care of that too. To start out the week my friend Katie threw me a party complete with roses, cupcakes, and people I love. On Monday, my brothers took me to a movie and while the movie I was dying to see ending up being a huge disappointment, it felt good knowing that my brothers loved me enough to sit through a movie they both hated. We laughed about it as soon as the credits started to roll.
Tuesday included a goodbye/birthday celebration with two amazing friends, and as we ate at Chick-fil-a, took pictures at my friend’s photography studio, and went goecaching we asked each other why we waited until I was leaving to all hangout together. The night ended perfectly when we stopped at Starbucks and the barista suggest Chai as the drink of choice for such a chilly night. My favorite drink, of course, but my friends tried it as well which made my heart happy.
On Wednesday (my actual birthday) I celebrated with my family with a French silk pie and my favorite dish beef subgum. Saturday ended out the week. Packing was stressful, but I finally fit my life into the back of my Nissan Stanza Wagon and headed to St Louis where my friends took me out to Friday’s for a birthday supper. I felt so full, so blessed, so loved. I can’t get over how many incredible people I have in my life which, after surviving a very hard year, feels so good.
Today was another day of celebration. After being in St Louis for less than two weeks God provided an amazing job for me as a nanny, and my plans to go to Kenya at the end of May have been finalized! (More on that to come) With everything falling into place I almost feel like I’m walking in a dream. God has been so good to me providing just when I was tempted to give up and surrounding me with some of the most amazing people. To celebrate my friend Tara and her husband Zach and I headed to the St Louis loop to enjoy dinner at Cheese-ology and then had rootbeer floats at Fitz’s.
As Psalms 73:28 says, “The nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” As summed up by the picture below. My cup truly runs over.
My cup runs over- rootbeer floats at Fitz’s
SimplyContemplating 