It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear. —Is. 65:24
A number of months ago, I was told by my doctor to schedule a blood test in April. Last week I went to the website of Quest Diagnostics and made an appointment to have my blood drawn on Tuesday morning. Quest is inside the Walmart in Osteen Florida. That is where I also do my grocery shopping. Since COVID hit, I have been using Walmart’s pickup service. I put in my order online and then schedule a time slot to pick it up. I love it. Before using the pickup service, I would spend half my time wandering up and down the isles of Walmart trying to find things on my shopping list. To me, that is really frustrating. And then I have to wait in the checkout line, and I hate waiting in lines. I always pick the line where the person ahead of me wants to carry on a 2-hour debate with the cashier over the price of an item. Using the pickup service, I park in the designated lot and they bring my groceries out to me and load them into my Jeep. So yesterday, I had my blood drawn at Quest. Then I jumped into my Jeep, drove around to the side of Walmart and picked up my groceries and I was on the road back home. How convenient!
This morning I received an email informing me that the results of my blood test were in. So, I logged into my account on Quest and read the report. There were several items related to my blood cells that seemed out of whack. Not being a medical expert, I did not know how to make heads or tails out of the numbers. The first item was that my red cell count was low. In the recesses of my mind, I thought that might be an indication of anemia. So, I did a search and sure enough I was right. I researched all the other out-of-whack numbers and every one of those pointed to anemia. Then I thought to myself, “that explains why I have been feeling weak and have no energy!” I just thought that having a gallbladder removed saps your energy. I had no idea about the connection to anemia.
Then I began researching anemia. What do I need to eat in order to increase my red cell count?
Spinach. Check—I have that growing in my garden and it is ready to harvest.
Salmon. Check—I have that in the freezer as well as some canned salmon in my kitchen.
Eggs. Check—I have plenty of those also because that was part of my Walmart order that I picked up yesterday. Hang on! Eggs? Are you kidding me?! Those will help to increase my red cell count?
The pieces of the puzzle began to come together. Lights began to flash, and sirens started going off in my head.
You see, I do not eat eggs very often. A dozen eggs can seriously last me for 2 months before I will buy more. In my Walmart order, I had selected a dozen large eggs. Every now and then Walmart will make substitutions to your order if they do not have something in stock. And they will usually upgrade you to the next best thing without charging you anything extra. So, instead of receiving a dozen large eggs, I was given 18 large eggs for the same price as I would have paid for a dozen. I drove away as a happy camper. I thought to myself: “Thank you Walmart, but 18 eggs in my fridge could last an awful long time!”
Now if I could look into the mind of Jehovah Jireh (the God Who Provides), I imagine He might have been thinking: “Bob really needs to be eating more eggs to get his red cell count up. He should have ordered 18 eggs rather than just a dozen. So, I better help him out and put in an extra half dozen eggs even though he does not understand why just now!”
Thank you, Lord! And thank you Walmart!
Blessings,
Bob
