How does God feel? by Mandy Baker Johnson

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We had a leak in the garage roof and water had dripped into a bag of food.

The garage behind church is the place we store donations of food and make up parcels for our food bank. On this particular Monday, I tutted to myself as I rummaged through the wet bag, intending to throw away the whole soggy mess. But something stopped me. I found myself instead setting out soggy tins to dry and only throwing out irredeemable items.

'What are we going to do with this lot Lord?' I fretted. 'We can't put rusty tins with soggy labels in parcels.'

Towards the end of a busy session, a well-dressed middle-aged couple came in. They hesitated in the doorway, drawn by the warmth and offers of a drink, a mix of desperation and shame in their eyes. They explained that they couldn't get a food referral until the following day and the kitchen cupboards were bare. It was clear from the way they gobbled down toast and coffee that they had not eaten for a day or two. We have a strict no referral/no parcel policy and it seemed there was nothing we could do to help. And yet, there were all those tins going spare....

As I made up an emergency parcel, I reflected on how deeply God cared for that couple. He had brought blessing and provision for them out of our leaky roof.

In the last eighteen months, I have been asking God how He feels about people who don't know Him. Although I knew the Bible says things like: We love because He first loved us, I wasn't sure it was true.

The incident of the leaky roof occurred at the very start of my quest in finding out how God really feels. He was showing me that He loves people whether they know Him or not and the great desire of His heart is that they will get to know Him and love Him back. He is the One who reaches out to us first and we love Him in response.


Mandy Baker Johnson is a self-employed medical secretary who enjoys blogging and is working on an autobiographical book about deliverance from darkness and being healed from cerebellar ataxia and ME/chronic fatigue. She is developing a heart for the poor and enjoys meeting people at her church's food bank and also volunteering with a Christian charity working with women in the sex industry.

Comments

  1. Mel Menzies7 March 2015 at 13:31

    Lovely post, Mandy. Well done xx

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  2. Wendy H. Jones7 March 2015 at 13:45

    Love this post Mandy. God's provision and timing is perfect. Those poor people. My heart goes out to them

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  3. Deborah Jenkins7 March 2015 at 13:59

    What a great bringer of joy those spoiled tins were. A spiritual analogy in there if there ever was one. Great post.

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  4. Mandy Baker Johnson7 March 2015 at 14:05

    Thank you! I was truly blessed to be a part of this little story, loved that God spoke so clearly to me about His love for others while blessing them through a leaky roof :)

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  5. Fran Hill7 March 2015 at 16:28

    It just goes to show that what we think is throwaway can be really valuable to someone else. A good lesson. Great post, Mandy.

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  6. Annie Try7 March 2015 at 21:22

    Thanks Mandy - I enjoyed your post

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  7. Unknown9 March 2015 at 10:56

    I love the way God answers our little prayers - what a blessing to that couple :)

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  8. Gillian E Dufaur9 March 2015 at 13:03

    Thank you for this post Mandy. Bless your hearts for the wonderful work that you do which is so needful at this hour! Looking to do similar thing in our church and hope it will inspire others too.. xx

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