The Red Chair

I love the chair in Phoebe's room. It's a striped glider, and it's the perfect place to perch while letting Phoebe (and soon, Nora) play at my feet. I've spent countless hours in that spot feeding babies, singing songs, reading stories, rocking sick children, and watching my little ones play. Phoebe's room has been our perfect play space, with lots of room to spread out.

When we move Nora in with Phoebe (hopefully in just a few short weeks), we'll be losing a lot of that space. A second bed will take up plenty of room, and won't leave enough room for easy play. I plan to keep our glider in there for its intended use, but it will no longer be my perch for the observation of play.

Our dining room wasn't getting much use as a dining room, and I've long considered that area wasted space. Even after an attempt to make it prettier last fall, it just wasn't reaching its full potential. I knew it would be the perfect place for our new play space after we moved the table and chairs out. The only thing I needed was a perch.

I had a very small budget for this room. I had a small stash of rainy day cash that I could use -- and that was it. My only option for furnishing this room was the thrift store. So I started praying.

I think this is the first time I've prayed so specifically for something. I prayed that

• the chair would easily be within my budget
• it would be comfortable
• it would need no repairs
• it would look nice -- that it wouldn't scream "thrift store"
• it would match my current decor (I already had a rug and window treatments)

Any time I started worrying about this chair, I started to pray about it. And y'all, I knew God had a chair for me.

Mom came last week to help me wrangle kids and set up the room. On Saturday morning, we went to the Salvation Army...and do you know what?

The chair was there.

Eleven dollars under my budget, the chair didn't even smell. It was absolutely perfect for our space. This chair is such a visible reminder to me of God's faithfulness, even in the little things. He knows and cares about my needs. God was even gracious enough to provide this chair in the exact way that I hoped He would.

We're all enjoying the space so much now. I think we've gotten more use out of that room in five days than we had in almost four years of living here. Michael calls it my little coffee shop; I call it an answered prayer. And honestly, these days I can be so dense that I need an actual chair to remind me that God hears my prayers.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:25-26