He makes all things beautiful

Sometimes in August, our street experienced total black out for a week. Black outs are nothing new in Lagos but this one was different. Typically, when there is a black out in our area, more than one street is affected but this time it was only my street, while other streets had electricity. On Saturday hubby decided to stop at the IKEDC (PHCN Distribution office) on his way out. When he got to the office to make a compliant, the customer service representative was shocked, he said, “sir you can't be serious you had a blackout for 6days”, our records show no one has reported it. He logged in the complaint and within hours we were restored back. As my husband narrated the incident at the IKEDC office to me, I kept asking myself why we suffered for that long, when it was an easy fix. How did no one on the street know to make a report and we all collectively suffered in silence? The answer was simple; we did not know that we could report to IKEDC and the problem will be fixe...

The other day our teen church presented a short play during Sunday service. In summary, a man ‘invited’ God for a meal and God promised to come. The man went home excited and told everyone who cared to listen God was coming to his house for a meal tomorrow. On the day, he prepared a spread fit for a king and waited eagerly for God’s arrival. He waited and waited, but 'God' did not come. His family mocked him but he still kept faith that God is coming. As evening approached a beggar came to the door begging for food, but he drove the beggar away because the only food he had was meant for God.   The next day he went to his pastor disappointed. He said ‘God did not come as He promised, can you imagine only a beggar came to my house yesterday’. The pastor shook his head and said God came as the hungry beggar but you drove Him away (Mathew 25:45). The man wept but it was too late. He did not recognize the opportunity before him because it did not have the ‘packaging’ he expect...

‘For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion’ (Romans 9:15). Airports can be a very interesting place to be. This is true especially if you are traveling alone, and you have to stand on the queues or wait around the airport for a connecting flight, you are forced to notice the happenings around you even if you didn’t want to. The scene usually varies from happy-looking families with children playing around, making you miss home to the couple that may need some privacy and everything in between. Or as was in the case during my last trip, a real life illustration of some life principles. Before I continue, let me digress a little as I can’t talk about airports without mentioning my observations on how very well organized and ‘behaved’ we can be as Nigerians once we arrive at airports outside Nigeria. I have wondered and concluded that there must be something in the oxygen that causes the differen...

T he other day, my son came to the room and asked for extra pancake (he had eaten his breakfast but he just wanted some more). Without looking up, I said ask your aunty to give you some, to which he replied I told her but she said NO. I looked up and said to him, tell her MUMMY said she should give you pancake. I had barely finished speaking when he dashed out and starting yelling, “aunty E, mummy said you should give me pancake”… and of course he got the pancake. Shortly after the incident, our pastor was preaching in church and we were reading the story of Elijah and the window of Zarephath (I kings 17:7 -16 ) . As we read along, I heard myself saying what audacity? I wondered, what gave Elijah the boldness to look at the widow and ask for her last meal? Did he not hear what she just said, it was her last meal? Almost immediately my eyes went back to verse9 where God had told Elijah “I have commanded the widow of Zarephath to feed you”. Interestingly, I remembered the pancak...

The other day, I watched a very nice poetic presentation by my daughter’s class titled “Where is my hairy toe”. It was a very beautiful and fulfilling experience for me. Yes, my daughter was part of the presentation, so I may have been wearing rose colored glasses, but beyond that, the events that led up to that moment also impacted my experience. It was a firm reminder that our God is a way maker .   The week before the presentation, my daughter mentioned her class was learning a new poem for school presentation. All the pupils in her class will participate in reciting the poem but only 2 people are to ‘act’ during the presentation. The teacher was yet to choose the only female character and my daughter hoped she will be chosen. I did not realize how badly she wanted to play that role until during night prayers on Sunday when she prayed passionately to be chosen. So you can imagine my anxiety when I returned from work on Monday and the first thing she told me was someone else...

Some months ago on a particular Sunday in church, I noticed the outfit a young lady, who I will call Ms. X, was wearing and felt as though this was the same outfit she has been wearing the last few times I saw her. For those that know me well, it was an unusual experience for me, as it is a struggle for me to remember what I wore to church by the next Sunday, let alone take note of what others wore. Interestingly, for this young lady, we had reasons to see on the average twice a week for over a month and I suddenly felt as though I always saw her wearing the same outfit. Almost immediately while I was still reflecting on it, I heard clearly in my Spirit, you need to purchase an outfit for Ms. X. I debated this thought in my mind, keeping in mind my bank account balance at the time and all the other expenses I had lined up. After a couple of days, I guess you say I crossed the first huddle, I decided I will buy her an outfit. While the idea was interesting, I was not sure how the logis...

My son is at the age when they learn about traffic lights at school and it always interesting for him to ‘co-pilot' with me when I drive them to school:-) . Recently, I remembered an incident that happened, when my daughter was at that age. One day her class teacher saw my husband and wanted to discuss “something important” with him. The ‘something important’ turned out to be a question as to why he beats traffic light. They have been learning about traffic lights in school and my daughter had challenged the teacher that her daddy goes on red. My husband was surprised and understandably embarrassed but told the teacher there must be a mix-up somewhere.  It was indeed a mix up as it turned out that at a junction on the way home, there were two separate traffic lights, one for those going straight and one for those turning right. The confusion was that she had expected that both lights needs to be green for us to turn right but her daddy usually turned right when the tra...