Liz Cobos had separated from her husband. She was emotionally devastated, and
the reality of keeping her two preschool daughters fed and cared for had all but
shattered her spirit. She believed in God, but where was He? She felt so alone.
Reluctantly, she decided to file for financial aid, until she could find a job.
However, the paperwork would take some time, and a few days later, Liz realized
that she had no money, and no food in the cupboards. She checked her purse and
pockets just in case, but there was no money anywhere, no way to buy even a
small bag of groceries. "I sent the girls next door because I knew my nice
neighbor would feed them," she recalls. "Then I sat on the couch and cried."
God, please, just a little help...just enough to buy some groceries for the next
week. As Liz wept, five-year-old Crystal came back into the apartment. "Mommy,
what's the matter?" She asked.
Liz didn't want Crystal to see her crying. "Nothing, honey. Why don't you go
outside and do something?"
"Like what?" Crystal persisted.
"Oh." Liz wiped her eyes. "Why don't you take out the garbage? That would be a
big help."
"Okay!" Crystal took the garbage bag and headed out the door and down to the
apartment complex dumpsters. A moment later, she was back. "Mommy, can I keep
this plastic egg that I found in the dump? I can put my Barbie doll clothes in
it."
"No, honey," Liz murmured absently. "You're not supposed to bring things in from
the garbage. It might be dirty."
"It's not, Mommy. Please? I'll keep the egg and you can keep the money in it."
Liz's heart seemed to stop. "What money?"
"Here," Crystal said, and she pulled four twenty dollar bills out of the egg.
Liz stared at the bills. The dumpsters were huge-there was no possibly way she
could find the owner of those bills. Did God mean them for her? Hadn't she
asked? "I will never leave you nor forsake you." The comforting words from the
Bible washed over her, and she understood.
"The money bought us groceries until my aid came through," Liz says. "I found a
job, and things are much better today, but I've never forgotten that moment, and
the reassurance it brought me." It wasn't so much the money itself, she says,
but the certainty that God was near and caring for her, answering her prayer in
His own way, in His own time. "Nothing is impossible with Him."
Copyrighted by Joan Wester Anderson, used with permission. Originally appeared
on the Where Angels Walk website,
http://joanwanderson.com
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