monogram mug mishap

Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

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Yesterday I experienced a brief but tramautic life event: I almost lost my beloved purple and orange coffee travel mug forever.

While at school I attend NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. I love the worship and preaching there, and I find it relevant, informative, and just plain fun! The church began as a group of 15 in 2000, and now has grown to 4 campuses, and internet campus, and a congregation of approximately 15,000 members. Thousands of lives have been changed and thousands of souls have been saved as a result of the Lord and his work through the ministry of this church.

Yesterday (Sunday) was the 10th anniversary service, and all the campuses joined together in Greenville, South Carolina at the Bi-Lo Center downtown to celebrate and worship together. A friend of mine and I ventured up about 35 minutes to Greenville for the service, departing from Clemson around 8:40 am for the 10:30 service.

Now, if you know me well, you know that I am hopelessly addicted to cafe. I loved coffee before I spent a semester abroad in Costa Rica, but living there made me a complete coffee lover/addict, whichever you would prefer to call it. So of course, since it was still somewhat early, I decided to brew myself a little pot of coffee and slap it in my FAVORITE coffee mug, a gift from my best friend Elizabeth that was given to me before leaving for Costa Rica. It has a removable orange and white piece of fabric, which I had monogrammed in my favorite french monogram font in a dark purple thread. I love coffee, and I love my dear little mug for those early class and early work days.

So my friend and I were about to enter the Bi-Lo center, and I guess that I expected NewSpring to be the entire staff, but they had Bi-Lo center people admitting people. They checked my bags, and I was stopped by a man who told me I couldn't take the mug in. He asked me to just finish the coffee and continue walking through, but after I finished my coffee, he told me that I could NOT take my mug in! I opened it and showed him that it was empty, but this man was not budging. I was livid. I just wanted to take my mug inside. I wasn't trying to bring anything dangerous in. Well, I didn't know what else to do but cooperate, so I politely sat my mug down, hoping it would still be outside when we finished. This (not so) dear old man THEN proceeded to THROW MY MUG AWAY as I walked past him. Now I know this sounds silly, but I was almost at the point of tears, because I was coming to CHURCH, drinking my own coffee, and just wanted to get out of the rain. I walked inside reluctantly, and was flabbergasted, when I ran into an old friend from Clemson with whom I had had some other classes. He said hello and asked me what was wrong, so I then proceeded to tell him the story. He simply asked where it was, and he told me would try to get it for me. I told him not to bother since the man had already thrown it away.

So I was still completely floored by what happened and went on to sit down and try to move past what had just happened to me. I felt like I had been "done wrong." I was mad and confused, but finally decided that even though it was a special gift and something I liked, it was just a 'thing' that I could replace and that I needed to get over it.

Ten minutes later, I receive a text, saying that my mug had been safely rescued and set aside! My friend had dug it out of the trash can and saved it, and told me to text him after service to see him and get it!

I thanked the Lord immediately, and felt his love in a crazy random way. The Lord took care of my mug. I can never doubt him again, and the fact that he wants to take care of me. If he can care for a silly plastic COFFEE MUG, how much MORE will he care for me? What an encouraging thought it was!