United States of America
Here is one story of gratitude out of many gratitudes that I have in my life.
Both of my kids live out of town. This is my statement thanking God for how He has taken care of them when they left the nest, our home.
My son went to college on a baseball scholarship. He moved to Pennsylvania. I prayed that God provide a family who would love him, nurture him, and watch over him. A coach from Georgia Point University saw him and asked him to come play for his school. Jon ended up moving to GA. It was in this college that he met his wife and his new family. Today, they still love him and call him son-in-law. This Rubin family is the answer to my prayer. Thanks to the influence of this family, Jon became a college pastor, and today he serves his church in this capacity together with his family; his wife Rebecca, two children: Arlo and Luca, also baby to be, my granddaughter, in February. Praise God! So thankful God responded in a permanent way.
In 2020, my daughter, Elaine moved to Virginia. I prayed that she would find direction and a path to stability outside our home. After much prayer and supplication, God allowed her in 2021 to meet a young man, named Enrique. The minute she told me, “Mom, I met someone.” I started praying that this relationship becomes formalized then that they would get officially married. In 2022, he proposed with a formal ring and they also got married. Today they have moved to Washington state. Being that he is in the Army, they have relocated to Washington.
I am thankful to God that when my kids left our home, God took care of them. Today they are both happily married. Though they live outside of Florida where I reside, I have witnessed God’s tender care and mercy providing them with stable relationships and mapping out a plan that seemed impossible to me. All things are possible with God. If He took care of my kids, God will take care of you.
Elenor Quinones
United States of America
Just celebrated my 32nd anniversary with my wonderful husband. He was an answer to my prayers. I was married at a young age with two children over the next four years. My children’s father decided he didn’t want the responsibility, that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, and we were divorced.
Being single for ten years with two children is tough, but the Lord always took care of us with all that we needed. A job with benefits came my way, thank you Lord. We were healthy, surrounded by faithful Christian friends, and I can now look back and see so many times the Lord was watching over us. Again, many thanks to our God.
My husband has been a wonderful father figure in our family. He is an answer to my prayers. I have learned to trust in the Lord knowing He will always provide for me.
Sandy Lincoln
United States of America
It was about 14 to 16 years ago, I was a single person living in San Diego. My two daughters were grown, one in Alabama and one in Chicago, so of course, my grandchildren were with them. I had good friends but felt a deep sense of loneliness because I missed my family.
My church at the time was a good starter church, but not a lot of thorough biblical teaching. My job was good, but at the end of the day, loneliness would set in again and again. I began to wonder what my purpose was away from my loved ones. Many times I was content and kept busy with events after work. For many years that was enough…for a while. Depression was setting in until one day I reached out to God and told Him that I can’t do this anymore. I need my family! It’s interesting to me how often I forget to ASK God and try to figure everything out for myself. You can probably guess that God stepped in and answered my prayer. Why do I find this so astonishing that our perfect Heavenly Father will go to any length to bless us with more than we could ask?
About two days later I received a phone call from my oldest daughter saying that they were moving to San Diego! Did I hear that right? My daughter and her husband who never cared for San Diego and thought it was too conservative were now coming here. Graduating from college in San Francisco, her views were fairly liberal to say the least!
Well, those years were some of the best years of my life. My first grandchild, Ava, was about four years old. The times were precious and magical as we played and imagined the most wonderful thoughts and the most fun make-believe games. Those years together were priceless, and God blessed us richly! He answered my prayers in ways I couldn’t have imagined. It is so true that He has better plans for us than we could ever expect.
So, again I wonder, why am I so surprised when God answers me in the most perfect way? Maybe I’ll never understand that as long as I live on this side of Heaven but I’m so thankful that He is my Perfect Heavenly Father and also thankful that His ways are not our ways!
United States of America
It was going hundreds of miles an hour. It was thousands of miles in the sky. It was a seat.
And I was buckled in it. Gazing through the compact oblique window, I saw endless hues of pastel blues puckered with cascading shades of curly, swirly cotton-candy clouds. The sunlight reflected the joy in my heart pulsing from the grateful satisfaction of a deferred hope fulfilled at long last. Reunion. Reconciliation. Reconnection. What I thought might never happen was, indeed, happening.
The cantankerous roar of the airplane’s turbines was a stark contrast to the calm purring within me. Recalling the strange series of events that landed me in the airboat getting ready to land at JFK airport in the bustling Big Apple slid me into cruise control. Strange as it might have seemed to others. Miraculous it was to me.
A gentle unyielding whisper from the Holy Spirit within birthed the entire outcome. “Just type his name in the search bar.” That was all God asked of me. A simple obedience. Such a small request. Yet one that required my faith to bound like a gazelle. It had been so long since I had spoken with him — seen him, felt his embrace, heard him utter my name — that I didn’t know if I’d spell his name correctly. So many ordinary moons had passed before this once-in-a-blue moon occasion. Would I even recognize him if his face appeared on the screen?
“Go ahead, put his name in the search bar.” There was that prod again stoking the fire of hope. The very breath of God was breathing on the embers of my faith into full flame. Was it spelled with a “w” or a “u?” Was it with or without a “y?” Maybe I should spell it both ways to cover all my bases. My typing stuttered and hesitated as I gave God my simple yes. I went with the most common spelling I thought of. D-w-a-y-n-e and pressed enter. There, I did it. Part of me felt foolish. God claimed it and reframed it as zealous.
I didn’t know I was holding my breath when a list of profile results popped up on the Facebook page. I scrolled searching. Each blink of my eyes reverberated a prayer against disappointment.
I paged down and down, stopping for but a moment when one man’s image tickled a place in my soul. But apprehension caused me to scroll on a little further. It wasn’t until the Holy Spirit nudged me again that I dared to go back and click on the man’s name, D-u-a-n-e. Behold – it was my long-lost father, despite my misspelling and all.
“Hi, my name is De’Siree. I saw my name listed on your profile page. And I think I’m the daughter you’re looking for.” “Hello, beloved. I’m your father. I’ve never stopped loving you. How I’ve missed you.” The plane had landed. The cabin was on the ground but strolling from it felt like walking on air. I arrived at the luggage carousel. And he was there with my grandpa, both waiting for me with the same joy of a deferred hope fulfilled years and years at last.
Reunited, and reconnected, with the man and the family I had lost when I was around 4 or 5 years old. I was 18 then. And God had restored all the years the locust had eaten. Impossible you say? Perhaps for others. But for God? Not at all.
The improbable, becomes possible even with the smallest yes, with the most meager step of obedience in God’s direction, with a mustard seed of faith, and the slightest spark of courage to hope. Nothing’s impossible for the God who makes all things possible to those who trust, believe, and
take Him at His word. God voids the impossible because His word doesn’t return to Him void.
by De’Siree N. Reeves
United States of America
When asked to think about what impossible to possible story of how God worked in my life, it led me to this event that happened over 50 years ago or longer. I haven’t thought about this for quite some time, but the Lord laid these thoughts on me to remember just how He is always there, whenever and wherever.
Our family was rejoicing over my older brother’s firstborn son. He was now two years old, and I was working as a waitress at the time, about a year old in our small community town. My boss received a phone call that I was to hurry home immediately, as there was a catastrophe happening. I did not know what, but I was told to go to my brother’s home right away. He and his wife lived about 10 miles away from where I was working.
To get to their place, there was a one-lane bridge over a deep creek. I reached that bridge in the middle only to be met by my other brother going the opposite way. We met in the middle, unable to back up, and worried we were on this small bridge. He explained to me that my little nephew had gone outside the gated fence and had fallen into a sewer hole in the back outer fenced yard.
He had suffocated and was found by the dog standing over this hole. His dad had tried to retrieve him and almost lost his life. We were all in shock and immediately realized we were in a dilemma of how to cross this bridge safely.
How did two cars fit this tiny bridge? No two cars could have passed on this bridge. It was “impossible”. This wasn’t possible to do, yet it did.
When my brother, who was driving the other vehicle, and I spoke about this later, we agreed that it was not our doing, but the Lord’s hand that got us through this passage. We should have toppled off the side into the deep creek. Our angels were with us in this deep time of grief. We do not always understand how we can successfully get through difficult and hard times, but knowing the Lord has been a comfort in all the rest of my journeys. I can guarantee he carries me more times than I could even count and continues to be with me always.
What a blessing to know you all can have the same comfort, just for believing. God carries you through and never leaves your side (that’s His promise).
Thank you, Lord, for your mercy and grace everlasting. I give all the glory and honor to you.
