Why Jehova Jireh Uses Breast Pumps To Speak To His People

In the midst of the excitement about our new move in 4 short weeks, I would be lying if I didn’t say I’m not scared.

Scared of leaving our home here, our friends, our family, our jobs, our community… our lives here are comfortable, happy and I feel like we have just settled into a really good routine.

All of that is about to be uprooted in 4 short weeks and everything we know is about to change.

Yesterday was rough. We were announcing to our sweet youth group about our leave which was going to be hard because we love those kids so much. A couple hours before church I talked with a lender and found out that we don’t qualify for a loan to buy a home in Houston because we are moving to one income down there (so I can stay home with the babies) and we have too much debt to income ratio (2 car loans and 2 student loans).

I was devastated. It totally took us by surprise- we live comfortably and are very responsible with our money and even though we do have some debt, we never considered ourselves to have “a lot of debt” and never even thought this would be a problem. All of a sudden, my dreams of buying a huge beautiful home in Houston and being homemaker, mommy and host started flying out the window. Where would we live? Would I have to get a full time job just so that we could find a home? I started to panic. All my plans were crashing down around me.

A few hours before we found this out, my breast pump broke out of the blue at work. I rely on this thing to feed my child while he’s at daycare and these things are expensive- a couple hundred dollars- so needless to say, I was freaking out!!!

Thankfully, I work with some awesome engineers who were able to bust the thing open and find that the reason it stopped working was a broken belt. A tiny little plastic piece that was going to cost me a couple hundred bucks!!! After they searched around our warehouse for 30 minutes with no luck, trying to find something similar, they told me my best bet was to go to a hardware store and see if I could find something.

This is where God stepped in.

On my way to youth group last night, I stopped by home depot. I prayed the most pathetic prayer which went something like this, “God, pllleeeeaaassseeee help me. Please cut me a break here. Please let me find someone who wont blow me off but will help me find what I need to make this stupid thing work! Please create this thing out of thin air if you have to! Please help me!” (said in a whiny, broken, pathetic tone)

I walked around home depot for a few minutes with this broken piece of plastic in my hand, looking like a lost puppy- Looking for someone who would see me and offer to help. Finally I approached this older guy with a buzz cut and arms full of tattoos  and asked him if he knew if they had something similar to this. We ended up in the plumbing section and after looking, looking, looking, finally came across a fixture that came with an O-Ring that looked to be the same size. He cut open the box and compared the two pieces  and said, “it looks like this will fit” and handed me the part. I thanked him profusely and reached out my hand to buy the expensive fixture, mad this O-Ring was costing me so much money but thankful it was by far a cheaper route than buying a whole new pump.

I looked up at him, waiting for him to give me the box and he pulled it back and said, “no, here, this is yours. Just take this piece.” I was confused. He had opened up the box and removed part of the fixture. I needed to pay for it. But he just smiled and said, “No, its fine. We just return this part to the manufacturer and they send us back the whole thing and we don’t lose any money on it.”

Seriously, people, this is when it got real ugly. Huge crocodile tears welled up and starting bursting out of me! Tears quickly turned to crying and crying turned to sobbing. Right there in the plumbing isle of home depot. I was so overwhelmed with emotion. I knew right there that God, the Creator of the Universe, my maker, was concerning himself (or herself if you like) with my breast pump problem.

Its so ridiculous to think that with all the horrors in this world, the tragedies that are happening every moment, that God would care about my little problems that greatly weigh on my heart.

Yet there I was, with my weak little faith, being so overcome with a sense that God was with me, helping me thru Clark (that was the guys name) and providing for me. He didn’t have to provide that for me. But he knew I needed that encouragement.

I am continually blown away by how God, Jehovah Jireh, has provided for me so many times in my life that I cannot keep count.

Provided for me in the mundane, physical, earthly things. The things that I know aren’t life threatening, but matter to my heart.

The things God uses to speak to us are the physical things of this life. The things we can touch, smell, use…

It’s a mystery to me as to why God chooses to use things like a breast pump to speak to me- encourage me- challenge me. But he does.

How thankful I am that the God who created the stars in the sky cares for me. Little me. Cares for the details of my life. Your life. If we would turn our eyes to Him. Rest in the shelter of his wings. Listen to him.

He is there.

In the form of a man named Clark.

In the provision of fixing a breast pump.

I’m still struggling with fear and doubt and letting my controlling nature die so that God can get to work providing…

But each time I start to worry, I’m brought back to that feeling I was overcome with in Home depot- that feeling of knowing I was being cared for, watched over, listened to…

And I let go of all my striving and just give in to Him.

And Jesus Said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”