God Is In The Granite

Just wanted to write about a recent incident where God answered my prayer in His perfect timing.  I realize that this is a bit of a frivolous story about a first world problem but nonetheless, God is in the details and cares about anything that makes us anxious and is so willing to jump in and help.  I believe God when He says in Philippians 4:6ish, "Do not be anxious about anything.....but in prayer..., present your request to Me," no matter how "unspiritual" the request may be.  If it brings anxiety, I'm allowed to pray about it.  Super cool, eh?!

That being said, I was invited to attend the "templating" of our new countertops at a granite yard in Florida while working on a kitchen redo project.  Clearly my salesperson, Mary, had no idea the "can of worms" she was opening by inviting me.  For some reason I had been unnecessarily anxious about how this particular granite, Golden River, was going to translate once it was cut and seamed because it had an unusually large pattern and was extremely "veiny."

As she began to lay the "pattern" on the "fabric" it wasn't at all lining up in the way I had envisioned it.  She was laying the "sink and cooktop area" on the "golden" parts I loved so much which meant they would ultimately get cut out!  I tried to explain to her my exact thought/design/visual process.  I wanted more "golden" than "river" and showed her what I meant by that.  We both held the template and placed it on as she drew the outline.  I was seriously feeling overheated as we were working outside under the hot sun and there was no where to cool off.  I literally began to pray for God to strengthen me and her as I did not want us to pass out from heat exhaustion.  And then I prayed for Him to intervene and work out the template pattern for His glory.  A few minutes later, a man named Stuart came out to help.  I didn't see Mary call him out to help us but I KNEW he was sent from above as an answer to my prayer. I was extremely grateful as he took over the project and was making it work to my liking!  The thought to pray for God to give him great wisdom like Bezalel (in Exodus 36), the skilled builder of the tabernacle in the OT came to mind.  I quickly got out of the way as he began to alter the pattern placement on the granite.  While I had removed myself from the project as God clearly had everything under control,  a worker named Gino came out to eat his lunch and we began talking.  He told me that he had been on the job since 1:00 a.m. and had just found the time to take a lunch break.  It was now 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon.   He told me that he had been working 90 hour weeks as the business work load was unbelievable.  I felt terrible sorrow for him and all of the workers.  Business was great but they did not have enough employees to handle it.  It reminded me of the Israelites having to make bricks without straw!  I knew I had a new prayer assignment.  I began to pray for all of the employees to know God and love Him and find their strength in Him and then I prayed for qualified and experienced granite workers to come along and help balance the workforce and workload.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, the granite installation was complete and needless to say, it looked amazing.  I give God the glory for the beautiful job the workers did and I am grateful to Him for taking care of the details.  I'm not sure about the situation at the granite yard and how the employees are faring but I know God heard my prayers and I TRUST He is working on their behalf.  Bottom line:  I am learning to take it all to Him and trust that He cares about my concerns and is willing to reveal Himself when I humble myself and ASK for His help.  This is a good thing and HE IS AWESOME!