A year under The Covering

Some of you may remember that a year ago, I began covering my head for worship and Bible study. At the time, I didn't even fully understand why I was feeling the need to begin covering. I had just been reading posts from women who covered (though all of them covered all the time except for sleeping, I think, and I don't) and thought it was a neat idea, and I liked what it symbolized.

I had no idea what 2009 was going to bring for us.

It has sure been a doozy of a year. We went from living paycheck to paycheck, to Will only working 1 - 2 days a week, to him getting laid off in March and going on unemployment, to him working at a terribly unsafe job that paid much less than he was making before, to him letting that job go so that we were living on zero income, to him finally getting hired back at the place he worked when the kids were young and we lived in town.

Through it all, God has been our covering. He has been our portion, our strong deliverer. Our freedom. Our provider. A lot of times the bills were late and we had to let even more things go than we had before, but we hung on and kept trusting and we always had food on the table and electricity and water.

Three different times over the past year that I can remember, it would be raining and the sun would come out. Every time I ran outside and looked every direction I could for a rainbow. I needed to see one, to have that physical reminder that God remembers his covenants and is our provision. I never saw one, not once. I would swallow my disappointment and tell him that I still trusted him even without something to look at, even though my faith at times was quaking.

Yesterday, Dana and I were driving to a wedding and I happened to look up and the clouds were around the sun just right that it made a beautiful rainbow halo. At last, my rainbow. And at a time that I wasn't looking for it because there wasn't "supposed" to be one.

Thank you, Lord. I love your sense of humor, and I love your faithfulness.