delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

i was browsing through my multiply inbox when i happened upon ruel's post entitled "living a life of blessing!" ruel recounts how had been praying for a "swiss-knife Bible," and God, in his rocking infinite goodness, gave him the desire of his heart.  God had just given me a similar experience as his, and, well...here's goes.

i didn't really want a new bible. honest. but God, being...GOD, knows us waaaaay better than we will ever know ourselves.

my usual post-service routine is hanging out at our church's next-door resource center. so that's what i did last sunday--after chatting with new friends, i hung out at the Pioneer church's bookstore, eager to look and see new books, and maybe yet again meet new friends.

just
then i saw this bible. the cutest bible i had ever seen. it was black with three glittery waves--in pink, blue, and orange. it was perched on top of the bible shelf. i gingerly reached for it and instantly got all kilig at what i saw. it was CUTE!

an acquaintance happened by, and in all my joy i called him to have a look-see. "uy, tignan mo ooooo! ang ganda ng bay-booooool..." i drawled.

mr. acquiantance (let's call him Jake) agreed. he had another friend with him who liked it too. in essence we were all crazy for the bible. Jake was making me kulit to buy it. as in he was persuading, convincing, cajoling, almost commanding me to buyit buyit BUYIT already.

at that time i already had another bible, and the practical, rational side of me was...rationalizing. "eh may bible na
ako eh," i reasoned. i didn't want the old one to go to waste. besides, sweldo would not come until friday. it had to wait.

after a few cajolings Jake went on ahead and i was left at the bookstore, making sulyap-sulyap at the bible, making the last few glimpses before i would travel back to Galleria. i'm sure you know the feeling: the "i-don't-want-to-let-go-but-i-have-to!!!" feeling?

i was happy with my old bible, remember?

Jake walked in a few moments later...and offered to buy my old bible for the price of the black one.

i was in shock, to say the least. i remember shakily removing the bookmarks in the old bible, and they were dropping all over the place. i was in a daze when the whole transaction was made. as in tulalang tuliro na tipong "what the heck is happening?" type. lost. you get the picture.

when Jake turned to leave for good, the waterworks came. (buti na lang wala nang tao sa bookstore nun! ) i was filled with so much joy and happiness and kilig...it was the BEST feeling in the world! over and over i was reminded of how David was in so much AWE of God's goodness to him:

Psalm 8:4 - "What is man that you are mindful of him?"

i couldn't stop thanking God then. i still am. the whole episode still makes me teary-eyed. it's a reminder of how great, good, and amazing God is. how He really is mindful of us. how He rejoices with us in our joys and comforts us in our sorrows. He ain't
distant. He's there. He just wants us to bask in His presence and dwell in Him. after all, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:38)

haaaay... thank You Lord! thank You thank You thank You LORD! to You be the glory!




PS: here's what it looks like. cute, 'di ba?