Hey blog! Can you believe it!!!! We’ve reached the last blog. Where’d all the time go???
The last blog is kind of a lot of pressure. How do I tie this up nicely? Should I just recap the whole year and all my highlights? I mean, I guess I could. But I’m not going to. I’m going to end my blogging career talking about the Lord’s Prayer.
This weekend I was in Charlottesville (go hoos) and I visited the church I attended in college. We talked about the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer. One of the main points of the whole sermon was focused around the phrase,
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Jesus doesn’t ask for an abundance of bread. He doesn’t ask God to provide him with tomorrow’s bread or the week’s supply of bread. He asks God for the bread needed for that day. I feel like this year was one marked by God’s provision of my daily bread. Day by day, month by month, the Lord gave me exactly what I needed at that moment.
I came to Raleigh grieving the end of college and feeling slightly uprooted from all that I’ve known. In those moments, God gave me my daily bread by providing me a new community full of beautiful people who embraced me and loved me. My nine other fellows are so special and I’ve never grown so close so quickly to a group of people before. Ever. And it’s because of God’s daily provision.
He provided me with a host family who I quickly came to love. Through His daily provision, the strangers who were helping me carry all my stuff to their guest bedroom quickly became the people who felt like real family to me. Marilyn, Matt, Tucker, Hannah, and Virginia have shown me what true gospel hospitality looks like. I hope we can all be friends forever. I love them so dearly and it’s because of the little moments I’ve shared with them… the daily-bread-moments, if you will.
Mary Ellen Bradford has become the older sister I never had and didn’t know I needed. She’s someone who holds my feelings and thoughts with grace and compassion. Her kindness makes me want to be kinder. I just think that we were destined to be friends. In the day by day, God provided me with Mary Ellen and I really could not be more grateful.
I’ve always wanted a mentor who can pour wisdom and truth into my life. And so God gave me Meg Bach. Wednesday night dinners at Meg’s house have become a sacred and special time for me. Throughout the year, God has used each meeting with Meg to encourage, challenge, and grow me. I hope to be half the woman that Meg Bach is. God provided me with one of the strongest models of faithfulness and devotion through her.
I could go on and on about all the different ways that God provided for me this year (there truly are so many!). But the point I’m trying to make is that these special relationships and the things I’ve learned through these people didn’t just come all at once. Day by day, God slowly introduced these people into my life. He slowly grew these relationships. In His daily provision, He was doing a work here in Raleigh that would be so utterly transformative for me. As I stand here at the end of the year, I look back and see how God was slowly piecing all of it together. He gave me my daily bread and I’m finishing the year so full and satisfied.
My hope is that the rest of my life is lived this way: not asking God for my life’s worth of bread, but just simply waiting expectantly for my daily provision. My prayer is that my hands remain wide open for what the Lord has for me and the faith to trust that He gives me exactly what I need, no more and no less. Feeling fully known and loved, I am stepping into the rest of my life knowing my Father in heaven is delighted to provide for me.
It’s been so good here. Thank you Jesus for all of it!
Peace and blessings,
Emily 🥰😍👋