Does God Supply our Needs?

God supplies our needs. People say that all the time. Sometimes, it becomes meaningless- just Christian babble.
Recently, God had to give me the proverbial “truth slap” in the back of the head to teach me this valuable lesson.
It all started when I was driving home from a youth retreat in the Pittsburgh area. My cell phone rang. It was my wife, calling to inform me that our washing machine had died. The agitator had stopped agitating. I tried to convince her that she could climb into the machine and agitate it manually… No dice.
A broken washing machine! Wonderful! Now what was I going to do? I didn’t have the cash for a new one. Frustrated, I surrendered to the inevitable- I’d have to put it on my credit card, something I hated to do. Going further in debt was not my ambition in life.
I arrived home about midnight that Saturday evening. It was too late and I was too tired to start surfing the Web. So Sunday after church, the process began- find the best deal on a washing machine.
  That’s when I received the next tidbit of “good news”. A new machine would take three days for delivery. Dirty clothes were already piling up!
“Well,” I surmised. “I guess we could wear paper clothes.”
I plopped down in my chair, exhausted from my trip, wondering what else could go wrong. That’s when the doorbell rang.
My wife called from the kitchen, where she was preparing dinner. “Honey, could you get that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Wonderful!” Here I was, grumpy and tired; a suitcase full of dirty clothes with nowhere to go, and my wife doesn’t have the common decency to get the door so I can wallow in my self-made pity.  
I have to explain something at this part of the story. Being a pastor in a poor area, many times when my door bell unexpectedly rang, it was someone looking for a hand out. 
   As I approached the door, a neighbor’s face appeared in the window.
“Yep. Someone wants some money.” I opened it.
“Sorry to bother you,” the woman said. “But do you know anyone who could use a washing machine? It’s free. I’m moving and don’t need the one I have.”
My mouth dropped open, almost hitting the floor. At first I thought someone was playing a cruel trick on me.
   We made quick plans for two of my sons to go next door and check out the machine. The next thing I knew, I looked out the window and saw them hurrying down the street, lugging a machine between them.
Guess what? It’s a better machine than the one we had.
I glanced at my wife. “Were you praying about this situation?”
She smiled. “Yes. I was.”
   I learned a valuable lesson. God can supply a washing machine. God can supply all our needs. Amen!