I'll give you the moral to this
story right up front.
God multiplies what you ask for in faithfulness.
I have been blessed with a garden where I can sit for
hours, work for days and that
spending time there comes back to me a
hundredfold.
We have birds of all kinds that visit us year round.
Feeding them is expensive but
God always finds a way to provide us with the
funds to do so.
We have rabbits and squirrels who are fed by the same
seed that birds toss from
the feeders. We have fish that have been with us for
many years in the small pond
just outside our door.
And we have deer.
There was a time before we created the garden that we
loved looking outside and
seeing all of these creatures great and small. As the
garden grew we needed to
do all we could to protect it.
Over the years my wife has come to call the backyard
"the compound." To one
side I needed to build fences tall enough to stop the
deer from jumping into the
yard and fences tight enough to keep the rabbit at
bay.
The rabbits still get in.
The deer stay out, but we still have the pleasure of
seeing them.
I am not a hunter, so every season my heart beats a
little faster as I worry about
the deer that pass by our yard and down the
driveway. I count them before and
after the official season arrives.
This year it appeared that only one returned. But we
had one.
Weeks passed and it was nowhere to be seen.
I couldn't imagine what it would be like here without
them.
So, I asked God, "Tell me there is at least one."
Nothing. Days went by and there was no sign of the
scrawny doe I came to
call my own.
Then today I just happened to look out my office
window and there it was.
"Thanks, God!" I said out loud.
Then there was another and another and another
and...10 deer!
We have never had more than three. Now there are ten.
Oh, I know they will split up and travel different
ways throughout the area,
but I only asked for one and God not only gave me ten,
but He made certain
I was there to see them.
I was like a child. "One, wait another! What?
Another?"
They all appeared one at a time like pulling rabbits
out of a hat.
Maybe where you live your see dozens. Maybe you don't
see them at all.
Maybe it really doesn't mean a thing to you. Maybe you
see them as your
next meal.
I see the little things as big.
I see the asking for one being multiplied ten times
over.
I see that moment as God's way of affirming He
listens.
I see that if He will do that for me, imagine what He
and I will do
together for you.
"I'll see you in my prayers!"
Bob Perks
bobperks@comcast.net
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
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