Ramen to the Rescue

Here's a story from a few weeks back that I've been meaning to share.

It was once again that time of the month - time to pay the rent. The landlady would be arriving shortly for her monthly collection so I made my way to the corner 7-Eleven to use the ATM. After withdrawing the necessary funds, I came to the sober realization that I had an equivalent of $1 US in the bank until my next pay day, still at least 2 weeks away. Wow. Though I had just had my best summer since being in Taiwan, it was probably my worst summer financially. The cutback in hours for the summer schedule in July and August were catching up with me now in early September. Basically, for the next few weeks, I was broke. There was not even money to spare for those little luxuries in life known as food and water (yep, gotta buy drinking water). Now it's true, my cupboards are full of food, but most things require an ingredient I don't have in order to make them.

As I got back to my apartment, I was thinking some more about what it meant to not even have money to spare on food for the next few weeks when the doorbell rang, or chirped, as the case may be. It was the landlady, no surprise. As I handed over the envelope of money, she handed be a paper bag from the grocery store. Inside where two big packs containing 10 regular sized packs of Ramen noodle soup. She found this particular kind to be good and thought I might enjoy it, though no, she's not in the habit of bringing me things. As we said good-bye and I closed the door, I couldn't help but chuckle at the though of how only minutes earlier I was wondering how I was going to afford food and here it was, free food being delivered to my door. Oh, the irony. It reminded me so much of friends' stories about praying for something and God answering their prayer but in a way very different from what they had in mind.

Oh snap! At the same time, what a slap. I hadn't even gone to God about the situation. I was still mulling over it in my own mind. I appreciated the reminder that God cares for us and about us even when we think things too insignificant to bring before Him. What a great reminder of His provision as well as a reminder of the insignificance of things of this world and how often I spend too much time toiling over things I shouldn't. For the second time that evening, I felt stunned.

The following morning, a group of people were at my house for house church. A Taiwanese friend I hadn't seen in a while happened to come and brought a large jug of tea for me. She claimed her father sent it to thank me for a time that I treated her to lunch. It was a thank you for looking out for her. Oh, the object lessons seemed to be coming in abundance that weekend. I was reminded of how God can not only meet our needs but exceed our expectations. It's cool too how God can bless us through those who are Christians, and through those who aren't, like my landlady.