God really does delight in giving good things to His kids. That’s what all good fathers should be like, and as the Good Father of all good fathers, He is the prime example. He doesn’t just tell us. He shows us. In our day and time, words are often cheapened by watered down usage and a lack of being backed by action. But real power comes when we see action that speaks volumes without a word. God has given us the Bible, His Word, and He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. But very commonly, He also speaks just by showing us favor, giving us things, or opening doors for us. Sometimes they are huge things, like Tim and I recently experienced when we were finally able to find a suitable house to rent back in my hometown. But sometimes they are small things, like a container of basil.

Basil? What does that have to do with anything, right?

See, in order to understand, you have to know the backstory. A couple of weeks ago, we were getting ready to make a recipe, and it called for basil. We didn’t have any, so we put off making that recipe until we could go to the store. As we all have probably experienced right now, during this time of odd supply and demand because of coronavirus, sometimes the stores have adequate supplies of things, and then sometimes, the most unusual things are out. There might be oodles of dish detergent, but not a single bottle of bleach. Or there might be tons of cheese, but a low supply of sandwich meat. Really random things. At our local Walmart, the day we went to shop, many of the herbs and spices were low in inventory, and there was simply no basil to be found at all. We checked again a few days later, and still, no basil. We never told anyone we were looking for basil, because it was not an earth-shattering problem. It was just a minor inconvenience. We managed to go ahead and create one recipe by substituting Italian seasoning, which has basil in it. So all was well. But still, there was that pesky lack of basil for future recipes we wanted to try. That is, until we got home one day…

When we came in the door from a trip to town, we were busy putting things away and trying to get settled in. And suddenly we just stopped. Both of us stared in wonder at our kitchen table. Tim asked incredulously, “What is THAT?”

Sitting in the middle of our kitchen table was a brand new, unopened spice bottle of something greenish. No one knew we had been looking for it. We didn’t have anyone on the lookout for it at other stores. We hadn’t even looked at other stores ourselves. We simply mentioned that we needed basil, made the best of what we had, and waited, knowing that at some future time, we would find what we needed.

We had no clue that what we needed would show up on our table. The only people who have keys to our home had not been there, but even if they had, as I already mentioned, they didn’t know we had been looking for basil.

Tim picked up the bottle, eyes wide open, and shook his head in amazement. He turned it so I could see the label, and there was absolutely no way around it. We had basil.

Some people don’t believe in the supernatural provision of things. And yet others might think that such things are petty, and that God has much more important things to do than mysteriously materialize spice containers on the dining tables of His children.

But I don’t believe that way. Our Father is the same God who took the fish and loaves that our elder Brother held up to Him and multiplied it to feed thousands. Our father is the same father who spoke through a prophet to tell a widow that as long as she kept believing and pouring, the oil would continue to come. That’s the kind of daddy that we have. He cares about the big things, and He is well aware of every crazy thing going on in this world today. But He also cares about the little things, not because of the sake of the things themselves, but because He loves us. And that’s why He gave us basil. We didn’t have to have it, but we just wanted it. And somehow, though neither of us really understands the mechanics of how it happened, all we know is that we have basil. And that’s all we need to know.