I met a woman rich in faith. Every day she thanks God for life.

Mary and her roommate are on disability. They moved into the same apartment to share resources.

One day Mary was out of food and out of money.

For me, “out of food” means I don’t want anything in my cupboard. I want chips and we are out of chips. Therefore, we are “out of food.”

For Mary, being out of food means there is literally nothing to eat in the house, not even mayonnaise.

When I pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” I mostly mean, “Lord, don’t let me get fired this week.”

When Mary prays the Lord’s Prayer, she is hoping to walk outside and find a loaf of bread.

So Mary was out of food. And her disability check (which is not very much money, regardless of what anyone tells you) wasn’t coming for a couple of days. Mary, being rich in faith, fell to her knees and started to pray, “Lord, please bring me some food today.”

She felt that God told her to go for a walk.

Mary is an obedient person so she went for a walk.

As she walked through her neighborhood, something caught her eye.

Was it true? Was this really what she had hoped and prayed for all morning? 

It was!

She walked over to the curb and rejoiced at her discovery.

A mattress.

A dirty, old, thrown out mattress.

…

I have to admit, if I prayed all morning for a meal and God gave me an old stained mattress, I would be hacked off.

Mary is poor.

And because Mary is poor the kingdom of God somehow belongs to her and she sees God’s provision immediately.

Mary took the mattress to a scrap yard. She received a small amount of money for the metal mattress springs and bought herself a cheeseburger. And she enjoyed that cheeseburger as the glorious gift of God.

Mary shared her story with a gigantic smile on her face. She grabbed my hand and said, “Isn’t God good?”

Who lives in the kingdom? People who praise God for old mattresses? Or people who turn their noses up at God’s provision?

Jesus said, “Blessed are you who hunger and thirst now, for you will be filled” in Luke 6. He follows this up with, “Woe to you who a full now, for you shall be hungry.”

I’m not making this up. Jesus really says this. And it’s a hard message.

I am well fed now. Even when I don’t have chips in the cupboard. One day God might feed his kingdom-people with mattress springs and other garbage. And I will be hungry, because I won’t see it.

Thankfully, I have made friends with Mary, who is rich in faith.