In Every Detail

I know this title might sound cliche, but it is true. God truly is in every detail of our lives. Not only is He in the details, but he cares about them. I know I have experienced his unique care and love too many times in my life to count. 

In this process of moving our family to Japan, we have seen God’s care in countless ways. But, if I am being honest, it has still been challenging and, at times, stressful. In mid-August, when we were packing and preparing for Chase’s departure in a few days, I wanted to be organized and prepared, so I put together a folder with all of his important documents as well as mine and Judah’s so that he would have them easily accessible to apply for our visas when he arrived. (Chase had to submit the application in Japan to receive our visas from the Japanese government.) As I went to put everything together, I realized that most of Judah and my documents were still not delivered back to us because we had to send them off when we applied for our new passports. 

Now, I did not realize that those documents were sent back separately from the new passports and could take up to eight weeks after you received your new passports to be delivered back to you. That may be common knowledge, but I was clueless. I was devastated when I looked up this information because we had just received the passports one week ago. My mind immediately started racing, thinking about how this would push our timeline back even more because Chase can’t apply for visas without them, and we would have to spend much more time apart than we initially thought. I felt I should have known better and that it was my fault for not researching how long these processes took or even making copies of the documents before sending them off. Does anyone else come up with seemingly brilliant ideas after the fact? I was crying to Chase as I was putting all of these pieces together and coming up with scenarios in my head that may not even happen, making me more and more sad and discouraged.

Chase let me get all of my thoughts and frustrations out and listened to my concerns. I am so thankful for him. He truly is the best husband and listener, but he also helps bring me back to reality when I need it, which I am also very thankful for, haha. He told me that, yes, the situation was not ideal and sure, it could extend the time that we would spend apart, and that just sucks. But he reminded me that we serve a God who cares for the details of our lives and that He is a God who can do things suddenly. He can provide everything we need, and we can choose contentment in every situation, whether the situation makes us feel good or not. We have that choice to make every single day. 

Chase also reminded me of a story from a book we both read called “Fresh Wind Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala and Dean Merrill. We both highly recommend this book; it was a life-changing and inspirational read for both of us. In the book, Pastor Jim talked about how his church needed a certain amount of money to stay open. He was praying and praying that God would provide for their church. Later that day, as he left the church building, there was an envelope of cash with the exact amount of money they needed with no name or address on it. I was so thankful that Chase reminded me of this at that moment. It helped me to remember that we serve a God who cares for the big and little things in our lives and that He wants to provide for us in unique ways that remind us that it could only be Him. It helped encourage me that if God could do that for Jim, God could do it for us. It strengthened my faith and brought me back to the reality that God is good, and He knew this was coming, and He is with us in every detail.

That day, we left the house to hang out with my family and had a great time. We couldn’t believe it when we got home and saw the mail. There was the envelope that contained both mine and Judah’s documents! I was especially shocked because I get emails sent to me most mornings with what will be coming in the mail that day, and this envelope was not on it. It was like God was giving us an extra surprise in that way. Those documents should not have shown up as fast as they did according to the standard timeline, but I am thankful that we serve a God that isn’t bound to timelines and our ways of doing things. He truly can do anything, even something as simple as having mail show up on your doorstep the day you need it. It was not big or flashy, but it was a powerful statement. I felt so loved by God in that moment. 

I hope this encourages your faith and challenges you to believe that God can do anything, absolutely anything, in your life. He is a loving father that wants to take care of us. It says in Matthew 6 that when we seek Him first, He will give us everything we need. When He is what we desire most, then we lack nothing. Seek Him first and experience His immense love for you in all the details of your life today.

Chloe