Do you Ever Wonder Why God puts people in your life when he does?

I often tell the girls that a sign of true maturity is when you know to ask for help.

You see it isn’t that I am not willing to ask for help or know when I am weak and in need of help. My weakness had taken over entirely a few times too many. My problem lies within learning just who you can trust to help you, guide you, support you or even just listen to you. History kept me from allowing myself to trust for years. And time and time again I would be reminded of this as I made attempts to surround myself with a community committed to following God’s way. I wrote the article at a time that I had finally learned to trust. Mind you it was just one person but then God took that person away, so I had to learn to trust again. It amazes me how God does it. The circumstances he places people in your lives. Even as I look back and think of the simplicity of the beginning of new relationships with some people.

I really never thought about my friends or acquaintances as being placed in my life by God until a few years ago. Those few short years ago I learned the importance of God’s timing with the people he choose. To this day I am still amazed at how my life was graced by certain friends. I often think back at the timing of meeting each individually. And then how combined they became part of my family as well as consume part of my heart.

Once my selfishness of wanting them to remain passed; I realized the importance of God’s timing as to when they were to depart from my life. God needed them elsewhere as others needed them so much more than I. There are still times I wish they were close by but I know I can always call them if the need were truly that great. They are only gone from view but never gone from my mind nor my heart.

Now as others come and go in my life I think of what importance they are in God’s timing. Meeting someone new had always been difficult for me in the past but now I look upon each new person as a new beginning. God has had them cross my path for a reason. How at times I wish I knew the reason.

Sometimes it becomes clear. Like the other day I casually met a single mom in the grocery store that typically never has a line. We are stuck behind the one solitary cashier whose scanner did not work. This Mom looked so tired as she held her toddler in her arms while pushing a cart. How I remember those days. I empty her cart for her so she can hold her sick baby with both arms. My daughters, the ever constant followers of Mommy, offer to help bag and put her groceries in her car. But before we could go in the store to ring up our groceries which sat in the cart this women hugs my daughters telling them how much she appreciated their help. My heart was touched by her gratitude. But my heart swelled more as my daughter Ashley asked if she could give the sick little girl a stuffed toy from the bag we were about to drop off at Good Will. A simple look. Just a glance. And I knew they had little. We gave them the the bags of toys and clothes we had to donate. My Ashley asked if we could get their name and phone number so when they outgrow their things again they could give them to her. We exchanged numbers. To my surprise a few days later a little girl, Sophia, called to talk to her new friends.

In the past I would have ignored anyone around me for fear of a conversation. I always looked down. I never had eye contact with anyone around me. I avoided people at all costs. But now I see the world. I see the people in it. It took me a long time to learn that the people God choose to be in my life are not there to hurt me, ridicule me, make fun of me, or hold my past against me. They are there for the now. God knew what this Mom and little girl needed. And I am blessed to have been the one he chose to cross her path on that unscheduled grocery trip. My desire to bake cookies with my children that particular night, a school night, so we could have some bonding time was truly an interception from God. I understood God’s purpose here…. it was crystal clear.

But at times it is not. How do you figure it out? For months the girls have been to school. They were adamant about having Mr. Monzo verses the other teacher. During orientation they marched right up to the principal and requested Mr. Monzo. Now this principal is known for putting you in the opposite class from the class you requested so I was a bit surprised they indeed got Mr. Monzo. I never thought of the purpose of this through God. But as always God likes to surprise you. His wife is in the same field and looking for a job. No problem I will send her a few connections. I know her first and married last name only. And we corresponded by email often. To my surprise she knew me but I had yet to figure out who she was until one day I realized who Cheryl really was. My name was a clear giveaway but hers not so. For a few days I had to wrap my head around this. When she finds out I finally realize who she is she tells me how her sister asked about me. Asked how I was doing? What do I do? Why has God put these two in my life at this time? How I wish I knew. How I wish it were as clear as the single mom. I have been trying to figure every angle possible for his reasons.

This is not the new beginning I had figured out with God’s plan. It is the past whirling it’s head too close to my present. What am I supposed to do? Why would he do this knowing how hard I struggled with letting it all go. I guess it will become clear soon enough. But how I wonder why God puts people in your life when he does?