I try not to keep snacks or candy in my house because I tend to overindulge. But one day, while my daughter was at school, I craved something sweet.
I told myself that I would eat just one—just one—of Jocelyn’s chewy Jolly Ranchers on her dresser. But somehow, some way, one became twenty-one. I ate all her chewy Jolly Ranchers.
I didn’t panic, though, because I had a plan. I stopped by Five Below to buy more chewy Jolly Ranchers before picking her up from school. But when I went to Five Below to buy more, they didn’t have any more!
Therefore, I bought her another kind of candy.
But when I picked her up and handed her the bag of candy, she looked in the bag, and then handed me the bag and said, “You can have it. I don’t want any of that.”
So, I moved to plan C: Walmart. When we arrived at Walmart, I told her, “Go get some lettuce for your salad. I need to go to one of these aisles.”
I scurried to the candy aisle and scoured the candy like a detective.
I saw the hard Jolly Ranchers. But I couldn’t find the chewy ones. The shelf space for the chewy Jolly Ranchers was empty! I began to panic because I didn’t want her to fuss at me when we got to the house.
Just as I began to leave the aisle, I stopped in my tracks and said to myself, “Nah. Let me look one more time. They’ve got to have some chewy Jolly Ranchers in here somewhere!”
So, I took my time and kept looking. As I looked, and looked, and looked, I noticed a bag of chewy Jolly Ranchers on the wrong shelf.
Praise the LORD!
Just because I didn’t see what I was looking for right away didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
In the same way, just because you don’t see what God has provided for you right away doesn’t mean it’s not there. There may be times when you need to keep looking until you find what you’re looking for.
Don’t give up hope. But keep looking. If you keep looking, you’ll see that God has provided for you.