It’s amazing how God provides in moments when we feel bleak and hopeless. This happens in both big and small ways. Sometimes it’s the small ways that astonish me the most. 

One afternoon my dryer stopped working. I was stressed, as it was the third large appliance to quit working in our house that week. 

Looking forlornly into my busted dryer full of sopping clothes, I sighed and raised my eyes heavenward, unsure what to do. As I looked up, I noticed something I’d never seen before, despite having lived in my home for over a dozen years. 

Several plastic cords were running from one end of the 20-foot-long basement to the other—four or five times, back and forth. It was a built-in clothesline. Someone had installed it in the rafters and joists of the ceiling, and I had never even noticed it!

God provides for us in a thousand small ways each and every day. Most of the time we are ignorant of these blessings and don’t even say thank you. But he’s always providing for our needs.

This doesn’t mean we always get what we want. But God’s timing is perfect. He sees your hurts, and he cares for you along the way.

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8,9).