When God Gives What You Least Expect

You might expect from the title of this post that I’m going to talk about something big. Something major. Like a book contract or a restored relationship or a physical healing. While I could tell you some stories about those things, what the Lord gave me last Friday that I least expected was a tiny thing. It was a contact lens.

A little background: my eyesight is so bad that my glasses don’t correct my vision anywhere near 20/20, and they can’t add any more power to them or it will physically affect my eyes. So contact lenses are a necessity. Without them I cannot function–I can’t drive or work on the computer or read (unless I can up the font on my kindle or hold the book very near my nose!). I wore soft lenses for around 20 years and have worn gas permeable lenses for over 15 years. Oh–and I’m NOT a morning person!

Back to Friday. I was at home and settled after our chaotic summer, but still trying to catch up on my rest, still exhausted of body and mind. I’d had a cup of coffee, but I guess my mind had already jumped ahead to my tasks for the day, for all of a sudden I found myself standing in front of my bathroom sink ready to put my contacts in when I realized I had actually opened the case and dumped the contents in the sink! 

Oh. My. Goodness.

My heart rate shot up, but when I looked down, one lens rested just outside the metal rim of the drain. One. Better than none, but still not good. It would severely limit my ability to function.

At that moment, I could have panicked, but I guess all the thinking and reading and praying about surrender and peace that I’ve been doing helped me immediately calm. And pray. And know that no matter the outcome of the situation, God knew it beforehand, so I could rest in knowing it would all work out the way He wanted. I knew that, worst case, I could call my eye doctor, they would order a lens and have it sent to me. And if I had to wait, then I guessed the Lord had other things for me to do than run errands and work on the computer. But I did have some options:

1. I had one “extra” lens, but didn’t know if it was for the same eye as the lost one, nor did I know if it had been kept moist enough (I’d had it for 2 or 3 years) to be useable;
2. I could undo the pipes beneath the sink in hopes of finding the one that went down the drain.

Obviously, I tried #1 first.

No go. That contact was so painful in my eye that I couldn’t keep my eye open. And so, with a deep breath, I got down on the floor and went to work. I did think far enough ahead that I had a basin to catch the water sitting in the elbow pipe. I didn’t think ahead enough to realize there would be more than water there. How would I ever find the contact in all the hair and gunk lining the pipe? I ran a little water through the open pipe and into the basin, but I still couldn’t see any sign of my contact. I continued to pray, but imagined at this point that the Lord had other plans for my next few days than I did. And I decided I would trust Him with that.

After reassembling the pipes, I swished around in the dirty water once more before carrying the basin to the kitchen sink, where, for some reason (the only explanation being the Holy Spirit!), I tipped the dish and slowly poured the water down the drain. Just as I was ready to refill the basin and wash it, I found my contact clinging to the bottom. At that moment, it was absolutely the last thing I expected to see. I thought the search was over. And it was. Just not with the outcome I imagined!

After a half hour of soaking it in solution, the lens went easily into my eye, and I went on with my day. But I did so with wonder. Wonder that God would, once again, give me what I least expected when I had surrendered my expectations to Him.