This past Sunday at Church, we had an incident. After a rain, our gravel parking lot turned to mud in several places. People walked through it on their way into the building, and quickly, our carpet, which was only three weeks old, was covered in mud.

I decided to let it dry and come back and vacuum it later. After a series of people going over it with the vacuum, I brought in my cleaner. Now, I have to give you the backstory of this cleaner I own.

Five years ago, my boys decided they wanted to go Black Friday shopping. The central place they wanted to go was Nebraska Furniture Mart. They got there early, waited in line, and ran to grab some of the cheap items for sale. They were not very successful at grabbing the best stuff, but they came home with a few purchases.

My wife went with them, and she grabbed a box that she thought was a vacuum for $40. When she got home, we opened it to discover a carpet cleaner. After a discussion about the price, we decided to keep it. The cleaner then took up residence in our hall closet, and was barely used. It remains looking brand new.

When I saw the Church carpet was a mess, I immediately thought, “I have something to clean that.” Monday morning, I arrived early and spent about two hours making the carpet look like new again. While I was filling the tank and emptying the dirty water, I began to wonder if this was all a tiny little part of God’s providence. Years before I had a mess, he had given me a way to handle it.

I am not convinced that God cares about every little detail like that, but I know the principle is still valid. God is working in our lives long before we need him. He is preparing us for whatever comes our way and giving us the grace we need to make it through every muddy season before we see the first dirty tracks.