Doing A Fast

One of the miracles I saw in my early years as a Christian was due to a period of extreme poverty.  I reached a point where I had no money, nor means by which to attain any, in any form, at least legally.  And, I flat ran out of food.  Well, I did have a box of Saltine Crackers and half a bottle of ketchup.  So, I rationed myself to three crackers a meal, three times a day.  It was what I had, it was what I could do.  Not much of a diet.

Perhaps because of my discipleship or my nature, I continued to thank God for each and every cracker I had to eat.  I continued to try and find work in most any form but the economy was bad and lots of people were in as bad of shape as I.

When I reached my next to last meal of crackers, a month later, I knew God was still in control and was not real sure where tomorrow’s crackers would come from.  As I prayed, there was a knock at the door and my neighbor told me that some people had dropped off several bags of food.  What are the odds that this person would even tell me?  Wow!

I set about putting this miracle away in my kitchen when there was a second knock at the door.  Very odd, considering that the prior knock at the door had been the first one ever!  And now there were two?  With great curiosity, I answered the door to find no one there.  Just four bags of groceries sat there!

Now, I never had told anyone of my plight.  No one knew and yet I had now been given enough food to last several months!

As a form of thanking God, I decided I would fast one day a week, so that I would always remember God’s miracle in my life that day.  And, for many decades I was able to hold to this observance.  However, with age, so many medications require me to take them morning, noon and night – and with food.  It really broke my heart to no longer be able to observe my fast, but God understands that gratitude is in my  heart and mind, not in hunger…..

*****

It was years later I was in a Bible study and someone asked the question, “What is the strangest thing you have ever done?”  One of the guys there was my ex-boss and told about how he had felt lead to buy four bags of food and then deliver them to an apartment in Tacoma.  He had no idea whose apartment it was, or why the food was needed there, but he did it.  I never mentioned it was me.  But that was so cool, God even used him (we did not see eye to eye on anything!)…..

A decade later my grandmother told me that her husband and her had brought me several bags of groceries, “just because”.  Again, she had no idea I needed food, much less what my address was.  In fact, no one had my address.  Wow!  No idea how she figured out where I lived…..

So, that was the rest of the story.