Unrecognized Need, Undeserved Provision!

It was a quiet Wednesday, January 27, 2021. Zoom Bible study in the morning. Zoom writers’ lecture after lunch. A calm day.  Nothing else on my agenda…or so I thought.

Just as the speaker ended the lecture, I saw I had a Facebook message. Was this a prank? Someone phishing? According to the message, Stone Mountain Park police had my pouch, and I needed to call.

The phone number prefix seemed reasonable, but I wasn’t about to place that call. I’d seen other folks caught in rip-off schemes. Besides, why would park police try to find me via Facebook instead of just calling?!

Prompted by this odd message, I now had a desire to see my “pouch”, the little zipper case I call my wallet. Just to satisfy myself that all was right in my world. Feeling quite confident my mind had processed this strange event well, I headed to the room where my wallet stays when I’m not on the road. My “pouch” wasn’t there!

So much for my mental confidence. Moving through the house, and before I could mention the message, I was informed that a strange voice mail had been left on the house phone. Stone Mountain Park police. Same story, same name, same number.

Do you ever have those times when your brain simply can’t keep up? How did my wallet wind up with the Stone Mountain police? How did they find my Facebook account? How did I not know I didn’t have my “pouch?!”

Slowly the incoming information gelled with what I already knew. The day before, after time with my sisters, I had driven into Stone Mountain Park for a brief visit. Even though the day was cool, I decided to walk over the covered bridge and around the island. A short excursion.  Just long enough to enjoy the beauty, take a few photos, and get home before dark.

When going for a walk, I often lock my wallet in the car without a care in the world. This day, I decided to put my “pouch” in my jacket pocket, thinking it would be safer with me than in the car. As I walked, I warmed up enough to take my jacket off, carrying it over my arm. Somewhere along the path, I evidently lost the small pouch that contained items very important to me. I lost a precious bit of property. And I never even knew it.

How does that happen? And how often does it happen?! How often am I missing something of importance without knowing it? How often do I have a need and not even realize it?! How often does God look at me, see my lack, and choose to help me, without me even aware?

Driving to the park with a friend to recover my lost item, I had a million questions. I wasn’t frantic, although I sure hoped my credit cards wouldn’t be missing. What a headache that would be! But my friend had a different perspective. She couldn’t get over the fact that God had allowed someone to turn in my “pouch”…when I didn’t even know it was lost.

Signing the police form acknowledging that I was taking possession of my wallet, I asked the officer multiple questions. When was it turned in? Where was it found? Who found it? Did the person leave a name so I could tell him or her, “Thank you?”

His answers only left me with more questions. The “pouch” was found at 10:30 the night before and turned in the day the officer called me. He tried to get the woman to verify the cash with him, but she just turned and left. Other than when and where she found the item, my “angel” gave no other answers.

Everything was inside…credit cards, gift cards, money, license. The skies had stormed overnight, but my wallet was clean and dry. Who goes to the covered bridge area in the park at 10:30 on a winter’s night?! If it hadn’t been picked up until the next day, my wallet would have been covered with rain and mud. Not only was the wallet found and returned intact, but it came back to me just like I last saw it, no worse for having landed wherever it fell from my pocket the day before. 

As I returned to the car with my wallet in hand, my heart and mouth praised the Lord. The officer said an “older woman” left my pouch with him. Was it really an “older woman,” or was it an angel who found and returned my wallet?!  I don’t know. But I do know that my God, the Sovereign of the universe, saw a need I didn’t know I had and graciously provided what I did not deserve!

How often does Jehovah do that? How often does He protect us when we need it but don’t know it? How often does He give us needed encouragement without us realizing that our emotional well is about to run dry? How often does He fight spiritual battles that are raging around us without us being aware of the stress we are blessed to avoid?

Isaiah 65:24 says, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” (KJV)

Do you hear that?! How loved we are! The God of the universe answers before we call! My lost wallet story is an example of that. But the greatest undeserved supply for every human’s unrecognized need is Jesus Himself. Before we even knew we needed a Savior, a Redeemer, a Rescuer from our lost and sinful state, God supplied!

When I was confronted with the fact that I had lost my wallet and thus had a great need, I was also informed that the need had already been met. At that point I praised God, the One “from Whom all blessings flow.” Until we know we have a need, we often don’t praise the Lord well for His supply. 

When we acknowledge our deepest need, that we are separated from the King of kings, and are in need of a Holy Knight in “shining armor” to rescue us, and we accept the provision God has made for us in Christ, then, and only then, can we properly praise the God who knows us by name, who loves us with an everlasting and perfect love. Jesus is the One who has met our greatest unrecognized need with His costly, yet undeserved, supply.

Jehovah graciously provides for us daily and forever. Our needs are many, often unrecognized until He opens our eyes to see. When He does, our hearts rejoice, because Christ our Savior, our Shepherd, provides unreservedly for His sheep. How blessed we are if we are His, for before we call, God our loving Father, our Savior and Redeemer, answers!

(Photos taken at Stone Mountain Park by Carolyn Thigpen, January 27, 2021)