How He loves us.

I just had to share this cool story from today!
Levi and I had just finished a morning of grocery shopping. It had been one of those mornings where I had to pause the shopping quite often to remind Levi that if he was a good boy, he would get some animal crackers. And so, we had just arrived at our car with all the groceries and he began to have an emotional break down. I barely get him strapped into the car seat. (there was a lot of flailing and arching of the back going on.) Then after I unload all of the groceries into the car, I realize that I am no where near a place to return a cart. It took a great deal of work to get Levi strapped into the car, so I was not about to take him out of the car seat. And he was in there desperately eating animal crackers and so I was also not going to leave him alone, in a locked car, as he shoves ridiculous amounts of animal crackers into his mouth. So I just stood there contemplating whether or not to obnoxiously leave my cart in the parking space or go through all of the work and emotional turmoil of getting Levi out of the car seat only to fight to put him back in again. Now this is not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, but I was beginning to feel very overwhelmed in that moment.
Now this is the cool part. An older gentleman must have noticed my dilemma, because he came over and asked me if my kids were already in the car and he offered to take the cart inside for me! He laughed and said he had kids and had "been there" once too.  I was so thankful! It was such a small thing, but we hardly ever see kindness like that anymore. As I got in the car and drove away, I marveled that I had a small, but real dilemma, and God faithfully attended to it with the kindness of a sweet old man. I thought about how if God can so obviously attend to my very small needs, then surely He is attending to the needs of my very soul. He is going to get me through life on earth without Ezra. He will turn the darkness into light and He will make the rough places smooth. (From Isaiah 42:16) And maybe, He will even give me another baby.
There's still more to the story though! As I was driving home, I noticed the song that came on. It is an awesome, powerful song by Tenth Avenue North (Not surprising, I know. They are the only band I ever talk about on the blog so far. But they are just so good!) called over and underneath. There is one portion of the song that talks about all the ways that God loves us, and this is when I tuned in. He says, "My love is over, it's underneath. It's in the sides, it's in between." I love that! That is what I had felt through that mans kindness today. God's love is everywhere. In the most unexpected places. Then, as if to further drive the point home that this song was for me, when I arrived home the song ended at the exact same time I put the car in park.
These are small things. But when you are in tune with and aware of God's presence, the small things become big things, because we can see Him working there.
The morning had been peaceful for me. I had been talking with God and dreaming of Ezra's life in heaven. I wasn't really in a place where my soul was longing for a gift like that, but He gave it to me anyway.
God is good.
All the time.
This is how He loves us.