I called my neighbor Mary this afternoon.
“Mary, do you mind if I share your stories….? You know about the appliances? And the NIPSCO bill?”
“I don’t mind,” she said.
Really, she would say, the stories belong to God.
A few years ago, during a cold winter month, my neighbor Mary asked God how she was going to pay her heating bill from NIPSCO. She prayed about that bill, knowing that it might be much higher than normal.
She went to her porch one day to get her mail, and felt a spirit of anticipation.
“Look like God was going to give me a surprise or something,” Mary said.
Then she collected the mail. Sure enough, it included her NIPSCO bill. She opened it.
At the bottom, it said, Total Due: $0.00.
Even though I had heard these stories from Mary before, I said, “Let me see that bill.”
Mary retrieved the bill.
I stared at the $0.00 on the bottom. Three zeroes.
“NIPSCO never puts zero dollars on a bill,” my uncle said later when I told him the story. “Even if they can’t get out, they at least make an estimate. Even if you use no gas at all, they’ll still include a base charge.”
Maybe they changed that year and started something new for that cold month when Mary was talking to God about them. I may never know what species of angel God sent to the NIPSCO bill printers.
I only know that I live two and a half blocks away from her, and I had just gotten a NIPSCO bill and at the bottom, mine had said, Total Due: $104.50.
But the story that really sticks in my mind is the time that I stood in Mary’s kitchen and she told me about the appliances. Mary was standing beside a brand-new stove and refrigerator and deep freezer. Mary had done her own running from God, she told me, and in the process, she lost her appliances to the mischief of people she had stayed with.
As she accepted the results of her bad decision, she moved on with God. She felt him speaking to her heart, promising to give her a surprise.
One day, a man came to her house with a beat up stove and refrigerator. He wanted only $75 for them and assured her that all they needed was a little washing up with a rag.
“I went out and looked at them and I say, ‘No, no, God gonna give me something better than that. I said, ‘No, I don’t want that. I don’t want that. God doesn’t give people junk.’”
A few weeks later, Mary awoke.
It was morning and her daughter Lily was getting ready for school. Mary strongly felt God telling her to get out of bed and go tell Lily that they were going to get their appliances that day.
“We gonna get our appliances in this house today,” Mary told Lily, “We’re gonna have them when you all come home.”
Lily said, “Ma…”
Mary went back to bed. Then, God told her to get back up and tell Lily that they would get not just appliances, but ALL their appliances that day. It was as if God knew that modern day skeptics hearing the story would want witnesses.
“Katrina, sometimes we’re disobedient to God,” Mary said. “I just laid there a little.”
Then she got up.
“I say ‘Lil, God said he gonna supply all our appliances today.’ She say, ‘Ma’. I say, ‘Baby, you gotta believe it, if God said it, it’s gonna happen! It’s gonna happen! I know we don’t have nothing right now but God said he’s gonna send us some appliances because I been praying for a blessin!’”
After Lily went to school, Mary walked around the house, praying, wondering how she was going to get appliances when she had no money for them.
God told her to go to the front door. She opened it, to find a man who had been about to knock.
“And this lady stepped up right behind him,” Mary continued, “’Are you Mary?’ I said, ‘Yes’. She said, ‘I heard about your need. But we here to take you to get some appliances.’ I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘Get your coat and come on.’ I was like, looking, Katrina, like, what is this? And she said, ‘We going to Menards.’”
To Menards they went, in a red van. Mary had never seen the van or its owners before.
At Menards, the lady asked Mary which appliances she liked. If Mary liked one, the lady said, “I’ll get the ticket.” She selected a stove, refrigerator and deep freezer.
She asked if Mary wanted a coffee pot, but Mary declined. She didn’t drink coffee.
“Is there anything else, hon, is there anything else?” the lady asked.
“I’m good, I’m good,” Mary said.
“Katrina, I was coming on back up there, and she got almost to the register, and she said, ‘Get your card out’. I say, ‘Card?! I don’t have no money on no card.’ She say, ‘Get your card hon!’ And then the man say, ‘Yeah, go ahead and get your card out and swipe it.’ So I said, ‘I don’t know, Lord, what is this? I’m gonna be made to look like a fool!’”
To minimize her embarrassment, Mary gave the lady at the cash register the card so she wouldn’t have to swipe it herself. It was a cash card, and Mary knew she had no money on it.
“And she swiped the card, and she say, ‘Everything cleared, it’s good!’
“I start hollering!” Mary whooped, “I start hollering! I start hollering, Katrina!”
Two delivery men intercepted her on the way out and took her appliances for her.
On the way back in the red van, the driver pulled into Burger King. Mary ordered a breakfast sandwich and a juice, but the other two did not eat.
By the time they got back, the delivery men were waiting on them.
“I couldn’t understand it, Katrina, cause usually you have to wait two or three days or wait til they load it up!”
The man and lady in the red van told Mary that they “do this all over the world.”
“And then the man said, ‘Don’t tell nobody, cause they’re not gonna believe you.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, they’re not gonna believe you, but we do this all over the world.’”
Mary helped the delivery men place the things correctly.
One of them told her that it had been a blessing to him to help her with the things.
Then Mary went to the door to see about the two people in the red van.
“They were gone, like that,” Mary said, hurling her hand toward the wall. “They was GONE! I start hollering so, Katrina, I say I know my neighbors think I’m crazy!”
“That’s an amazing story,” I told her, almost breathless just from listening. I kept glancing around the kitchen.
“People don’t believe God, Katrina, that’s the problem, they don’t believe God. You got to believe God, Katrina!”
May God give you the strength and endurance to believe, like Mary, that God doesn’t give people junk!
If Mary’s willingness to share these stories has been a blessing to you and you wish to leave a comment for her, I will get your comments to her.
42 thoughts on “God Doesn’t Give People Junk”
Thank/you for sharing this testimony of the love and care God has for his children. Very inspiring.
Oh, I need this now, Mary. God has told me that He’s gonna provide, and in my humanness, I want to know how. But with your testimony, I will trust that He will. Keep praying and blessing people, Mary!
So inspiring and challenging to me and to have faith like you have Mary! God bless!
Thank you for sharing Katrina
Thank Mary for her trust in our big God . He knows all our needs even before we ask Him.
Yes ma’am!
Tell Mary I was very inspired. I say AMEN ! We don’t believe in God enough! God bless her much! Stay faithful!
I will!
The thing I like so much about this story is that Mary wasn’t demanding or entitled. She wasn’t whining and complaining about her lot in life. Deeply moving!
Yes!
Thank you Mary, for reminding us to believe God and for strengthening my faith by your stories!
Good to hear from you Rosetta. I’d love to see you about now, too!
This article was placed perfectly after “A Hand on the Throne of God”! I had to think that Miss Mary’s hand is right there too. I can picture a verse in a modern Hebrew 11 saying something like this “By faith Mary believed in God’s promises to the providing of her household and proclaimed His goodness to generations to come”.
Thanks for this wonderful story of faith and God’s provision.
Good point… I didn’t think of the connection with the last post.
I never heard that story before, Mary. I want that kind of faith. Bless you.
Amen!! God help us all to BELIEVE Him! Thankyou so much for sharing, Mary and Katrina!:)
I love the part that God doesnt give junk! This story has me in goosebumps!! That’s our God. He’s bigger than anything. Like I told someone once, my Father owns more money than any man on earth. He can do anything for us that He chooses. Please tell Mary how she blessed me tonight.
I will!
Wow! Sounds like a Widow of Zarephath story. I just read that this morning. Thanks to you, Katrina and Mary, for sharing this story of faith and trust.
That is a beautiful story as well.
And what did. Lil think when she got home?
I’m not sure! Just remember her smiling and nodding while Mary told the story.
My faith had been very thin lately. Thank you Mary for your faith and testimony. Keep trusting God.
Two of my favorite stories! Never tire of hearing or reading them!
Tell Mary ‘hello’ from Stan & Mya and I. ????
Oops, sorry if I’m repeating myself frequently! Glad you like it though.
Mary, your story is a powerful testimony of our great God. He loves us and he loves to answer our prayers. I believe that true helplessness coupled with true trust in God for an answer ignites his heart to do special things.Thank you for reminding me of the special things God does and is able to do for his children when our hearts our trusting Him. Katrina, thanks for being the storyteller. 🙂 Stories are powerful!
You’re welcome! ????
Thank you both, Mary and Katrina, for telling us these stories! They definitely blessed me…… God is still the God of miracles! 🙂 I wonder how many blessings I’ve missed because I didn’t believe.
I’m sure I’ve missed a lot as well!
“God will make a way, when there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a way for me. He will be my guide, draw me closer to His side…God will make a way! I truly believe He made a way for you Mary! Praise God!
Very appropriate lines!
I want to be like Mary! Thank you and may God continue to bless you Mary!
So do I!
Amazing!! My faith and trust has been pretty weak latel. This really encouraged me. Reaffirmed the great God we do serve.
????
I cannot stop the tears, Katrina. Those are the most wonderful stories and you have blessed me for sharing them. Tell Miss Mary thank you for allowing you to tell them.
I will certainly let her know!
I certainly will!
Mary is an encouragement to me. I will be praying more specifically and with more faith.
I’m sure it’s obvious, but she is an encouragement to me as well!
Amazing! Thank you for sharing, Mary. We just don’t understand how awesomely great and powerful God is!
Thanks for sharing, Mary! Your story gave me goosebumps. God still does miracles, and never forgets His children!
I will pass on your message!