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While on vacation, a health crisis put my husband in an unfamiliar hospital where I spent many lonely and frightened hours at his bedside.

As a nurse myself, I had to trust strangers with his life. Advocating for him felt like rowing a boat against the current. I ached to bring him home, or at least to our home hospital.

Overwhelmed, and needing to cling to my heavenly Father, I attended Sunday services at an area church we had visited before. When a parishioner greeted me, she asked how I had come to their church. She was so kind, and I found myself pouring out my husband’s situation and my fears for him. The congregation immediately introduced me to Sarah, who talked and prayed with me during the long hours I spent at the hospital. Because of Sarah’s encouragement to trust my instincts, I refused a procedure that, in hindsight, would have killed my husband.

Sarah reminded me of the angel God sent to the prophet Elijah, who fled from the soldiers Queen Jezebel sent to kill him. Like Elijah, I was frightened, overwhelmed, and about to surrender to whatever the doctors suggested. But God sent me Sarah, and her real presence, like the real bread the angel gave Elijah, fortified me.

When we are in a crisis, God’s help may come disguised or in unexpected ways. Perhaps it is my neighbor turning up just when I need him. Or coming across the Bible verse that speaks to my situation. Sometimes, we call these heavenly helps coincidences, but when we see through eyes of faith, coincidences become God-incidences.

In our humanness, we need to remember that God always knows what we need and when we need it. Especially in difficult days, we must step out boldly and trust God to provide—sometimes in unique ways.

Make sure you don’t miss God’s angels in disguise.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)