A Cafe Girl and A Bottle of Shampoo

In college I was a "cafe girl." I worked there from my second semester in college until I graduated. I did it all. At one point or another, I opened in the morning, ran the food lines, washed trays, scrubbed pots and pans, and then I hit the glory spot. I was the "Cook's Assistant." Some nights I would have to make hundreds of pancakes and grill hundreds of hamburgers, fry chicken strips and fries (I fry the best fries), but other nights, it was a breeze.

I have been taught from the time I was young that I take what I earn and I give a part to God. I had been taught that when you give, God gives back. And, while we don't just give to get, He would take care of us. The thing is, God always had taken care of me, I had my mom and dad across from me, in the same house! But now, I was in college. On my own. Many, many many hours from home. And, I was running out of things I needed to survive on a daily basis. I'm not even referring to things even like hairspray or a new sweater, but real things of necessity, like you know, soap and shampoo. I was in a panic.

The time came though that I was going to be asking for help. That night I called home and said, "I'm beginning to smell." (Not really, I wasn't that bad yet.)
"Oh Steph." That's what my mom said. But I knew they'd help.

This is where the best part of the story comes in to play. My friend's parents were in town. They had driven in on Sunday and I was going to be meeting them Monday night. I'd like to re-emphasize, they left Indiana on Sunday morning, a whole twelve hours before I called home.

Monday I met up with the family, and they told me they had some things for me from my family. When I met them at their van they pulled out a big grocery bag- the brown paper kind- and what would you expect to be in it. Shampoo. Hairspray. Conditioner. Soap. Everything I was running out of. Everything I needed.

When I think about this now, I am reminded that the God then, is still the same today. Some of you might say God had nothing to do with it, it was my parents, but oh He did. My mom and dad had no idea I was struggling at that moment, but God knew all along. Some might say it's coincidence, but I believe that a lot more than coincidence happened that day. It was not fate or chance. It did not just happen by chance that I received just what I needed at the exact time I needed it.

Matthew 6:33, 34

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."