He knew that I needed them…

I’m hard on socks. I wear them all winter long, as I cannot function with cold feet. If my feet are cold, the rest of me is cold…if I’m cold, I can’t move around…if I can’t move around, I get nothing done, and get depressed. Ergo…I need socks.

The trouble with socks is that my floors are dirty, sloppy, and often wet with splashed-over-the-sink dish water or toddler-bath-turned-splash-zone water. The moment I step in water, off go the socks into the hamper and out come a fresh pair. I’ve worn as many as three separate pairs of socks in a day.

I bought two new packs of socks earlier this winter season, and thrown out close to a whole pack that I had bought three winters ago that were now riddled with holes. I’d gotten my stash back up to a pretty good amount, but invariably, I would get behind on laundry and still end up running out. An empty sock drawer meant that I had to start laundry. STAT.

So, I thought it was very ironic when my mother-in-law walked into my grandmother-in-law’s house for my birthday party with this:

She had just come from a school fundraising auction, an event that she and her husband spearhead every year for their church’s Christian school. She bought the basket of socks because she knew that both of her children and their families would be in town for my birthday party, and figured that the socks would go to good use. Me, my sister-in-law, and her daughters excitedly went through the basket, divvying up the supply between us. I walked away with these, socks for the entire family:

Later on that night, I crawled into bed and pulled out my Bible to read a tiny bit before going to sleep. The bookmark was set to Matthew 6, which I hadn’t finished the day before. The next section for me to read was a section about provision:

“And why do you worry about clothes?
…your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”
Matthew 6:28, 32

To say that I needed socks would be a strong statement. And I haven’t been sitting around worrying about clothes too much. My worries are bigger. In two months my husband will be out of a paycheck, and I’m worried about how we will afford our basic needs food, housing, and health insurance.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 

I think that we forget that God knows what’s going on. I didn’t even have to ask, He just provided. Because He knows that I’m hard on socks. He knows that having a few extra in my stash definitely isn’t going to hurt, and will help out next winter, or the winter to come, when money might be tighter.

But I don’t think that the message He was sending me was about socks so much. He was showing me, even now, before we are truly in need, that He’s got our back.

I got you free socks. I think I can handle the bigger stuff too… Stop worrying. I got this.

So today, I’m thanking God for free socks. Because He knew that I needed them.