I wasn’t planning on updating today.  I’ve been so busy with editing photos from various photo sessions I’ve had in the last month, and sewing up baby clothes for Susie Mey, fulfilling orders, and preparing for a craft fair next month — more on that later.

I’m updating tonight because something supernatural happened to me today.  My brother, infamous for past stories like: forgetting his laptop case (with Mac laptop inside) on the roof of the car and driving away — after a week of him fasting and praying for its return, he gets a call from some dude who picked it up.  Whoa!  God answers prayers, but most of all He responds to faith.

Well today my brother greets me in the morning with a, “I left my NorthFace backpack at Chipotle last night — it had my MacBook Pro, 2 external hard drives, passport, and other stuff.”  He had called Chipotle, but the manager said they didn’t find a backpack.

I looked at my brother dumbfounded — he could NOT have done this again.  I wanted to call him, “Irresponsible”, along with some other things I was thinking, but I kept my thoughts to myself.  He frantically printed out a $100 reward flyer and was about to race out the house to head down to Chipotle to file a police report.  Before he left Greg stopped him and said, “Let’s pray.”  So we all closed our eyes while Greg prayed a prayer asking God for unmerited mercy.  The whole time I was literally thinking, “He’s never going to get it back.  He’s really lost his laptop this time!  How irresponsible!”

As Greg finished up his prayer, I heard a voice ask me, “Do you think I can do it again?”

I knew it was God.

I knew He was asking me whether I had faith that Josh could get his laptop back, a second time.

I said with sheepish confidence, “Yes.  I know You can do it again.”

Two hours later, I hear that Josh’s backpack was recovered, in its entirety. Basically, the manager calls Josh back and says they have it.

Some may call this coincidence, but I call it grace.  Thinking back on God’s voice brought tears to my eyes.  His voice was so clear, it came out of nowhere.  My tears weren’t for the recovered backpack, the tears were for unmerited mercy.  I’ll say it once more: God answers prayer, but most of all He responds to faith, and that’s the truth.

Josh’s own words, via Facebook today: “There is nothing like God doing something amazing to kick off the first day of classes.  Left my MacbookPro (inside a NorthFace bookbag with passport and 2 hard drives with ALL my work on it) at Chipotle last night.  Prayed… called them this morning, said they looked everywhere and couldn’t find it… prayed some more, believed in faith… call back and they said they found it.  God is always looking out for us even when we are not worthy of His mercy.”