Great is Thy Faithfulness

Matt and I have been talking a lot about God's provision during/after our move lately.  Asa and I have officially been here 6 months (plus a few days... Dec. 1 marked six months), and I feel like I'm having another wave of processing.  I think part of it has to do with Advent and Christmas.  I'm honestly struggling a little bit being excited about Christmas because everything feels so different.  It doesn't feel like there are the same holiday rhythms we found and established the last 5 Christmases we had in Florida, 4 of which were in the house we owned.  I had figured out where I best liked our various decorations... the kitchen had a kind of snowman theme, I knew the perfect places for our fiber-optic snowman (that I can't find... it's buried in the basement somewhere) and Christmas duck, I had everything "just so," and I'm really missing that right now.  We have many fewer rooms and much less living space, so on top of not having the tradition of putting certain things certain places that I liked, I'm having to pick and choose which decorations to use.  I could never use everything we have in the house we're renting.  It makes me sad. :(  I've had moments I felt like, "If we didn't have Asa, I would consider just doing a tree," but even THAT has been difficult!  So far we've only found spray painted trees!  No thank you!

So that being said, Matt and I have been talking about how much we cling to God's past faithfulness.  Almost in a way that speaks to us thinking we are responsible for keeping the blessing going.  Matt said one of the sermons I missed while I was in TN was about God's faithfulness to the Israelites when they were in the desert.  How God provided mana, and they thought they needed to collect and store it instead of trusting Him to provide exactly what they needed when they needed it.  We both commented that our hearts' first reaction is to do the same thing.  I GRIEVED leaving our pediatrician in Florida.  She truly was a God-send, and I cannot imagine her handling the issues for diagnosing and treating Asa's tongue tie more perfectly.  And yet, instead of trusting God to provide someone just as amazing and just as much of a perfect fit for our family's approach to medicine here in Ohio, I grieved leaving Dr. K and felt hopeless at times about ever finding a doctor I could like as much.  Why?  When God provides for us perfectly, why do we not SEE that faithfulness and trust and know He can only be true to Himself and will be faithful again?  His faithfulness does not always look the way I want it to, but He IS faithful.  I can rest in that.  I do not have to scramble and analyze and make a perfect pediatrician appear out of thin air.  I can pray and trust and follow.  And in fact, He did provide a pediatrician I really like so far. :)

Maybe I'm just rambling, but I wanted to share what God has shown us recently.  And in light of it, I have pulled some Christmas decorations out, put up a wreath and garland, and I'm not giving up on finding a tree. :)  God gave us sweet Christmas celebrations in Florida, and I know He can do the same in Ohio.  We're celebrating His greatest gift of all, so how can we not find some sweetness even in the middle of missing our FL traditions? :)  And we are both yearning for our hearts to enjoy blessing and rest in God's provision instead of scheming a way to maintain God's blessing on our own.  It's pretty ridiculous when you realize how you really process things on your own.  Praise God for His patience, grace, and mercy! :)