When I was a high school teacher, many of my students’ lives were in constant turmoil. One particular girl, Jenny (not her real name), would come to my office when everything seemed to be falling apart for her. And when things were really rough, I had just the solution.
I don’t remember how it started, but somehow I learned she really liked a particular kind of banana juice. So I went to the store and stocked up on this juice and kept it in my desk drawer. When Jenny was having a difficult day, she would head for my office and a bottle of banana juice. On really bad days, while she was drinking the juice we would sit on the floor, lean back against the file cabinets, and stay there until the crisis didn’t seem quite so bad any more and she was ready to go back out and face the world.
Recently I had lunch with Jenny, who is now a beautiful young woman, poised, successful, and certainly no longer in need of banana juice. We reminisced about those days and chuckled about the banana juice.
Thinking about this later, I realized that God is exactly the same way with us. There was nothing magic about the banana juice, but it meant something to Jenny at the time. It symbolized comfort and made her feel cared about. For me, it was a blessing to be able to help her. That’s how God is. He knows just what we need, just what will help us through our crisis. He will sit with us and stay there until the crisis doesn’t seem so bad after all.
God’s care for us is way better than what I was able to provide for Jenny. His love and grace is never ending. There were a couple of times I ran out of banana juice, and there were times I simply could not take the time to sit on the floor with Jenny. But God always has time for us. The banana juice represents something different for each one of us, but whatever it is, God it never runs out of it. What an awesome God we have!
