Has God ever provided you with something you needed without even asking? Well, in my case it was a 10 gallon fish tank. Let me explain.

I had been planning to speak at a girls retreat for three weekends in June. As part of my planning I generally have a long list of props that I need to gather together that will help demonstrate my message. This year the topic was “That None should perish” and God gave me this great object lesson using fish which naturally needed a fish tank and in this case I needed two 10 gallon tanks. I had one tank stashed away in our garage but needed a second.

I began my search by asking family, friends and Pastor LaDona at my home church. But, to no avail. After exhausting my resources I had reserved myself to the fact that I would just have to buy one. A $30 investment to help the girls understand the importance of sharing the message of Jesus’ love and forgiveness, a small price to pay although I certainly didn’t like the idea of spending $30 on a tank that I might never use again. Oh, well.

Pastor LaDona was helping me with some of the other props on my list as well as some much appreciated printing and laminating. You’ve got to understand that I will beg, borrow and steal, well not steal, but I will beg and borrow anything I can to avoid buying an item that I might need. I’m pretty well known for that. Anyway, I knew that Pastor LaDona had been gathering together some items for me and out of the blue I called one morning to see if I could stop by and pick them up. Without hesitation she told me to come by and what she didn’t have gathered together we would go retrieve from their wealth of props in the church.

When I arrived we pulled everything together and she said that as she drove in that morning she happened to notice something outside of the “Shoe and Clothing Drop” container in the back parking lot. I’ve used this container in the past and it is clearly marked “Shoes and Clothing ONLY”. LaDona had seen what appeared to be trash placed outside the container. She drove by to see and thought she’d have to take it to the dumpster but upon further inspection thought it was a fish tank and suggested I drive by and take a look before leaving. She knew that I was looking for some type of tank.

Knowing that LaDona would never lead me down the wrong path, I loaded up my stash and headed to the “Shoe and Clothing ONLY” container to check it out. To my surprise there in front of the container was a 10 gallon fish aquarium, exactly what I needed. God had placed a fish tank in front of the “Shoe and Clothing ONLY” container on the very day and time that I would be gathering up other props. Perhaps this could be considered the “steal” part of the beg, borrow and steal because right there and then I scooped up that tank, put it in the back of my prius and off I went as happy as a clam. I proceeded to call my closest friends to share in the excitement and jubilation of knowing that God provided a fish tank just for me.

God cares about the details and wants to give us every good and perfect gift from above and on this particular day that perfect gift happened to be a fish tank.

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.