Sometimes I encounter people who find it hard to imagine that God cares about the little things.  They have felt that God only cares or has time for the big stuff…and the little stuff is just not on His radar.

Well, here’s yet another illustration of God’s overwhelming faithfulness.

A week ago I posted the picture above on my Instagram.

With it I wrote:

Recently I found something crazy-amazing on our local online yard sale.  It would be the perfect {inexpensive} Christmas gift for my little grandtreasure that lives in Africa.  I was giddy!!  But how would I get it there!?  It’s pretty enormous and Dw thought I was looney to even consider it.  But I know how much God loves to provide crazy things because He loves each of us like crazy.  So I prayed and remembered a box that we had in the garage that we had {literally} just gotten.  I measured.  And you guessed it.  I just have to believe  that from the beginning of time our faithful God knew I would need that box and He was orchestrating life to land that enormous hunk of cardboard at our home at the exact time I would need it for my little grand’s Christmas gift.  And in days it will be soaring with Boppa and the #IVOGOTeam2016 toward the little guy I miss so much.  And I know he will be overjoyed when he opens it and across the oceans his Mimi will be welling with tears.  Faithful God.  Oh how He loves to provide.  #Godhasbeensogoodtous  #mimisheartsmiles 

The thing that I didn’t realize when I wrote all that was that the box would be too big to fly.

Period.

When we learned that it exceeded the limitations for the airline, we cut the box down to fit most of what was in it.  But there were two long pieces that didn’t fit in the box to begin with.  So we took a really long box and tried to improvise by kind of just wrapping it around to accommodate the two long pieces.  Yet, even in our diligence, the measurements exceeded what the airline website told us.

Dw suggested we forget it!!

WHAT?? All I could think was, “He did not just say that?!”  

Cause in this Mimi’s heart, I could not and would not forget it.  I felt that the Lord had provided this steal-of-a-deal from the online yard sale and that it had been made precisely for one sweet little fella who stole my heart a couple years ago.

Dw conceded.  We would try.  And besides we didn’t know if the measurements meant they wouldn’t take it or we would just pay extra for it to go?

So yesterday morning at the Phoenix Sky Harbor {isn’t that a cute name?? I just love it..Sky Harbor}…we had 11 suitcases and boxes…Ruby’s old wheelchair, Ruby’s old stander…other medical equipment…adult diapers…just all kinds of supplies…

When we arrived at the airline counter the girl wasn’t in the mood for our pile of stuff.  Bless her heart.

But we smiled and talked expecting to warm her up a bit, yet her ice cube self remained frozen solid.  Oh well.

As it turns out the airline website information on the measurements meant that the two very long pieces of plastic were not allowed.  Not a chance. It was not a matter of potentially paying extra, they weren’t going!!

At this point we had been working on getting all the stuff checked in with the airlines that we had taken over an hour.

So for the next 20 minutes we took the box apart and measured the contents.  It was still, no matter how we looked at it, five measly inches over the limit.  It’s not heavy, not thick…and it’s not really breakable…just long.

Dw said, “You’ll have to take it home.”

I could feel the tears welling.

I whispered, “Lord, I really believed you were going to provide a way.  I don’t get it.”

As we gathered our things to head home, the manager, who hadn’t been particularly helpful either at any point suddenly came scurrying over and bent down with what appeared to be her tape measure and pretending to measure, almost shouted, “I don’t know what your problem is, but I get 80″!!  That’s it! Exactly 80″.  Not sure how you measured…”

And with those words, she picked up these narrow, but very long pieces of Little Tikes plastic and handed it to the icy agent at the desk…to which she slapped a tag on it and off it went.

I laughed as I shouted praises to the Lord.

Eighty inches.  That’s what she got when she measured.  

And He came through again!  Just like I knew He would, because He is sooooo faithful.

At the very, very, very, very, very last possible second.   

The little, the big, even the 80″ of the Thomas the Train toddler side rails – He cares about it all.