Jesus, my gift-buyer

Is any experience with God any bigger or smaller than another?  Today I submit for you to judge.  And you should know this story causes great sigh within me.  It involves something regularly unraveling my every nerve.  The culprit is gift-buying.  Gift-giving brings joy, but so often before the giving, I’ve already endured the trial of buying.  Whether shopping at a mall, or buying from an individual artisan, or purchasing ingredients in order to make by my own hand—somehow I so easily encounter this hollow feeling.  Even buying for those I love dearly, this void of ideas evidences so predictably.  Recently I pleaded, “Lord, help me.  Show me a birthday gift for my husband.”  Soon I entered a Half Price Books parking lot, at first thinking I was there for paper birthday plates.  I debated, “But Half Price doesn’t sell plates, do they?”  Still I pulled open the store door.  Sure enough, the cashier says they don’t sell party supplies, but I resolved to look around since I was already there.  In the electronics section I see earbuds.  Amazement speaks, “Oh, wow, he’s been talking about new earbuds.  These’ll be great.”  But wait a minute.  Which kind?  Which color?  And there my heart sinks because it recognizes the lethal indecisiveness that’s about to set in.  And how thankful I become for the Lord's quick reminder to ask Him to choose the earbuds, so I don’t waste all afternoon vacillating between color and style.  Then I drive home.  Party time comes, and I realize something else.  As my husband gleefully unwraps the earbuds, he says, “You even got the straight kind!”  And bewilderment must have shown on my face.  He points to our old purple earbuds with the cords that dangle too close, and within me a new height of thankfulness blossoms to realize how the Lord guided my hand to select these earbuds without my even knowing about straight cord options.  Yes, He rescued me again.  And I don’t want to assign any size or weight to this blessing.  Just as the Lord rescued me from a rainy, muddy mess in Mexico, just as He rescued me on a deserted road in Israel, now He rescues me in America in the mire of my shopping.  And this shopping is not necessarily any less of a mess.  Our fears reveal in different settings.  Our weaknesses show at different times.  The message here is that the Lord rescues us over and over—whatever the deficiency, whatever the plea.  In 2 Peter 2:9, we read, “. . . the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials . . .”  The chapter gives historical examples of the Lord rescuing, such as with Noah.  And still today the Lord rescues.  He loves His children.  He hears.  He listens.  And with each rescue, my love for Him grows.