A World Without Waste

In a world where we are becoming more and more aware of the amount of waste, it is hard to imagine a place without it. It has become a baffling problem all over the world with what to do with it. We create so much trash and throw so much away, not considering where it is going to go, and what is going to happen to it. If you have ever seen a picture of a landfill, well, it’s kind of nasty.

You may be surprised to find out that God does not waste, ANYTHING. Death creates waste. But in God’s economy there is no waste. I began to really learn this about a year ago when I found out that I was pregnant for the third time.

This event came as a shock to my husband and me, because we thought we were done. We thought God thought we were done. To be honest, this was kind of a silly thing because God had spoken to me years ago and told me that we would have four children. I thought that future had passed because we hadn’t done things the way I thought they were going to go. But just because things didn’t go according to my plan didn’t mean God’s plan had changed.

So here I was, pregnant and freaking out. It was the beginning of summer, and we had made all kinds of plans. We had no insurance. We had gotten rid of all our baby things. (Our youngest was now four.) My hope and dream of being able to get out of the house and start a ministry was seemingly gone. In my eyes everything was a mess.

 I felt so sick the whole summer. I was borderline narcoleptic, and my poor older kids would just play around me when I would pass out on the couch. “I’ll just close my eyes for a second,” I thought. I woke up two hours later. It was so hard for me. I felt like God had just given me my life back. I had just finished my first book series, and now I didn’t even feel well enough to write.

God’s attitude about the whole thing was completely different. He was excited. He was constantly smiling about it and pointing out that I was pregnant and how fun that was. When I was tired and sick, He sat with me, talked to me, and taught me. When I was scared, He held me. And He promised to provide everything. Ladies and Gentlemen, He came through on that one in a BIG way. We hardly spent any money on anything for our baby. So much was given to us. God was so generous through our friends and family.

I thought that my summer was going to be wasted because I was so sick. We had no extra money because we had to pay for the midwife out of pocket. But man, God taught us so much I can’t even remember it all.

 

He taught us about His love and faithfulness. He taught us about His provision. He taught us about His will over ours. He taught us about His protection over our baby. He taught us about the strength of His promises. He taught us about His comfort. He taught us to step out and have mercy for others in times of need. He taught us to let go of the future and put it completely in his hands. There was so much more. Every day He took as an opportunity to do something amazing.

To give you just a few specific examples: I had been talking to God about His promises, and I asked him, as proof of a promise, if I could have a ring, similar to a promise ring. He said yes. I was wondering where the money was going to come from. I kept asking Him for it, and He continued to say yes. Finally, on my birthday I woke up, and I brought it up again. I told him that I would like to go shopping for my ring, just to get an idea of how much it would cost. Even if I couldn’t afford one yet, at least I could check them out and start saving. That morning a good friend of mine took me to breakfast. She gave me a lavish cash gift for my birthday, and told me I had to get something for myself, not stuff for the kids. (As mom’s we do that a lot.) I was so excited. I had a lot more than I expected to spend on a ring. I went out, and the picking of the ring is a different story altogether, but God said I could have something to symbolize his promise to me, and He provided for it.

Another example is more baby related. I wanted a specific kind of breast pump because my last one had been painful, to say the least. We looked at how much a new one cost, and it was over three hundred! I looked for

used ones and finally found one for fifty dollars. I was just about to go get it when my super amazing aunt showed up and gave me one. It was the exact brand I had been looking for. She’s awesome. God provided exactly what we needed every time. Sometimes, He just gave us things we wanted.

He is an amazing provider, and there is a lot of that exampled in this post, but again my big point is that He doesn’t waste anything. He used a very challenging time to work amazing things on our behalf. Every day He taught us and worked in us to bring us closer to Him and His plan. He knows our struggles, our difficulties, our hurts, and our pains. He never wastes any of it.

In Genesis 50:20, Joseph speaks to his brothers, who had abused him and sold him into slavery. He tells them this, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” We may look at our circumstances and feel that nothing good can come out of it, but go to God and He will not waste a moment of pain. Not a single tear that you shed will be forgotten by Him. There have been times when I have gone to Him in pain and He has wept even harder than I did. I could feel His sympathy for me. Sometimes, all we need is to feel validated in our pain.

So no matter what you are facing, friend, turn to Him and He will turn your valley of fears to garden of green. He will turn your tears into diamonds. He will turn your pain into roses. He will turn your suffering into a crown and call you “child of mine”.