Today God gave me a small taste of what people mean when they say, “If God closes a door, He opens a window.” It was a small, sweet moment of life, when the kids and I were out in the hot Florida sun jogging, walking and riding bikes. Mostly walking, basically. But anyway, we got really hot on the way back to our home from the smoothie shop, and Melody, who is six, said she was exhausted from the hot sun. I knew she was, too, since I felt like I had run a race when in fact I had walked almost exclusively.
I felt compassion for her and decided to be bold with God. We stopped under a tree, the only one around, which offered some shade. I prayed aloud, “Lord, send us a cloud cover.” I felt on display, asking the God of the universe to help us in the small, probably not emergent issue, but I also felt a real need so I asked. I waited for about thirty seconds, which for my squirrely self is like five minutes. Then, I pragmatically decided we would keep walking home since at two o clock it is only getting hotter and it was still as sunny as always.
In a moment, however, a delightful breeze swept over us. It kept blowing and blowing, and felt amazing. The sun shone brightly on us but in that moment, we were refreshed. I remembered the above cliche, and laughed, thinking that God didn’t answer my prayer the way I saw fit, but in His own way which felt more amazing, like a treat! Then in another moment, the cloud cover arrived as well, and was totally welcome. The girls rushed to me on their bikes, since I was like practically in slow motion walking, and they told me God answered our prayers. He sure did, and now we are resting up for the next adventure, and we may be here for awhile!