We are always saying that our God is a “God of more than enough.”  Head knowledge and heart knowledge are very different though.  You can know something without really knowing it.  What I “knew” I now know – for sure and for certain, one hundred percent positive: God is amazingly, outrageously good.

We will be moving from our Nairobi apartment to a tiny house on a small farm that is farther from the central part of the city than where we are currently.  Moving is something I do not really want to do, but that is a story for another time.  This story is about the way God displayed His goodness in my life.  As for the actual logistics of moving, there is always much to consider and decide upon.  Other than our clothes, books, dogs, and some random household goods, we don’t own much.  What that means is, over the next few weeks, we will have to buy the things we need – beds and appliances especially.

Besides those necessities, we really needed a set of pots and pans.  As the cook in our home, having nice cookware is something that is very important to me.  While doing some research online, we found this gorgeous set of Rachel Ray bright orange pots and pans that would look great in our new kitchen, the walls of which are covered in blue-and-orangey yellow flower-print tiles.  I saw that set and knew that it was exactly what I wanted.  I also knew, however, that transporting an entire pan set from the United States to Kenya in a suitcase was not something that was going to work.  I didn’t even need to ask to know that.  Thus, we went to the grocery store here to look for some other pots and pans that we could purchase.  I tucked away my desire for those lovely orange pots and resigned myself to having something decidedly less pretty to cook in.  Then we went to a moving sale at Sam’s friend’s house.  They had so many wonderful things!

My new orange pots and pans – plus a couple extras I found at Marshalls!

I happily set to rummaging around their kitchen, finding such treasures as a crock-pot and a variety of Corningware baking dishes (kitchen things make me very happy!).  Then we opened the last cupboard.  And what do you suppose I found?  That is right – an entire set of bright orange pots and pans, practically brand-new.  And this was not just any set of bright orange pans; it was the set of bright orange pans.  I almost burst into tears.  It was not as though I was asking God for those pans or as though I had been thinking about them constantly.  I was not overwhelmed so much by finding the pans in that cupboard as I was by an amazing sense of God’s love.  He couldn’t have told me any more clearly had He given me a note saying, “Everything will be all right, my daughter; and more than that, it will be wonderful.”  My God meets all my needs – always has and always will.  But I have never before had such a mind-blowing experience of His going above and beyond, of giving more than enough.  This I know full well: my God is an outrageously loving, more-than-enough kind of God.  And sometimes His love looks like a bright orange set of pots and pans.

I’m addicted now.  It started the summer I was six, when I gave Him all that I had been, all that I was, and all that I would be.  It wasn’t until I was ten, though, that He really got my full attention.  I was hurting and lonely; and I just felt certain that there was more to be had than what I was seeing.  So I began to cry out, and He showed me some of His wonder.  I totally broke down.  I literally crumpled to the floor in the middle of my bedroom and sobbed.  He is so amazing, and I had never truly seen Him before.  It was that same year He told me it was time to lay all of me down, to be baptized and let go of everything old to make room for the things He wanted to do in me and through me.  He told me it was time to start finding out who He is and digging into His Word.

I started at Genesis and worked my way through to Revelation.  It took me two and a half years, but it was good.  Admittedly, the first year or so was painstaking – and not simply because I was reading through the Mosaic Law!  No, it was because I hadn’t yet come to the point where He was my sole desire, my greatest love, and my satisfaction.  That took time.  The readings began with a desire to obey and learn.  As time went on, it became my early morning habit, a need – the day just wasn’t right if I hadn’t started it with my “quiet time.”  Finally it became a pleasure – a full-blown, unadulterated pleasure.  Now I find that I cannot help myself.  In the dim morning light I listen for that still, small Voice as I read and write in my journal.  As I hang the laundry and do my homework I sing His praises.  As I make dinner I whisper my thankfulness.  As I put my little sister down to bed, I speak His words of life and love.  As I lay in the quiet darkness of night, drifting off to sleep, I am comforted by His peace.  My God has become my obsession, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s you and me and all other people; and I don’t know why, I can’t keep my eyes off of you.” – “You and Me,” Lifehouse