VBS God Lesson #2

Tonight was our second night of Hero Headquarters VBS. The night started MUCH more smoothly than yesterday and the night went very well! The crazy part was the weather. Last year it rained one night of VBS, and I had to scramble to create a rain schedule.

This year we have rain schedules prepared for each night "just in case". Today I thought we were going to have to use our "just in case" schedule! The rain started around 11am, and it was not just a simple sprinkling. It was an all-out downpour...for 6 hours! Around 3pm I decided to wait until 5pm to check the weather conditions and decide whether the "rain schedule" was necessary. At 4:40pm it didn't look like it was going to let up, and I was prepared to use the rain schedule. At 5:15pm the skies cleared, the sun shined, and it did not rain again for the rest of the night!

Monday night before I went to bed I checked the weather forecast. When I saw it was supposed to rain most of the day, I prayed it would not rain 5pm - 10pm. Like I said, by twenty minutes 'til 5pm today, I had accepted the fact that we would operate according to the rain schedule for the evening. It wasn't that I didn't trust God. In fact, I remembered last year (2009) when it rained, and how I had prayed all day it would not rain that night, but it still rained. We had VBS indoors and it turned out to be the smoothest night of the week. I thought maybe God had something similar in store for us this year.

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I walked around the front desk of the YMCA at 5:15pm and one of my volunteers said to me, "Look, blue skies!" I looked, and sure enough the clouds were clearing, the sun started to shine, and the blue sky became visible! It's like God was teasing me with a smile by waiting an extra 15 minutes! I couldn't help but be humored by it.

I think the lesson for tonight is that God can and will answer prayer. I mean, I know God answers prayer. He answers each of our prayers, even if the result is not what we requested. I'd have to say tonight was more in the positive light that God does answer prayers according to our requests. I am both grateful and encouraged by this!