Strawberry Preserves

By Kevin Molloy

I recently had a miracle that seems too trivial to even mention. God can give us anything we ask for… even strawberry preserves.

Up until this time I never paid attention to the difference between jelly, jam, and preserves. I had invited my son for breakfast, with the ulterior motive of having him bring over my granddaughter, so I can see her every week

This has become a time honored tradition the last few weeks and I enjoy them immensely. At about one year old she is at the age where she is into every thing, and you have to watch her incessantly.

She will see something that interests her, but she should not get into, and unplug something on the computer or eat a shoe or something else like that (the last time she was here she unplugged the electric cord to the speakers of my computer.

It was a tightly stuck electric cord that I do not know how she unplugged. Yet, while my son and I were talking she somehow managed to undo the electric cord from the power strip where it was connected.

It remains a mystery since she became an electrician at one year old!

My church group has a food pantry, and sometimes I help out with the commodities. I try to repay the kindness shown to me by the local church group, and sort wanted from unwanted items as a volunteer.

My son told me that he wanted strawberry preserves for his untoasted, sourdough, English muffins which we get many times from the food stores.

I thought that the pantry would have this item, but after looking everywhere we could not find them at all. There was no jelly, jam, or preserves.

What a dilemma!

It seemed like such a small thing and I determined that day that I would buy some as soon as I could go to the grocery store.

On the way home driving my golf cart I asked the Lord if I should spend the money on preserves for my son’s breakfast. Too trivial you say, watch how Jesus provides?

I had the distinct feeling that God was going to provide me some strawberry preserves, and that I should save my money. I have learned to follow those hunches, and wait, when I thought God was about to do something unusual.

I did not think any more about whether I should buy the strawberry preserves or not, actually I forgot all about it. As I was turning into the driveway of my home I called my son and admitted that I did not know the difference between the fruit storage types.

Sorry ladies I can build a computer, but I did not know a jam from a preserve, or jelly. I do now though. I saw some jelly commercials after dinner and the word of the Lord came unto me that He was going to provide the preserves that I needed.

I promised Him that if He provided the preserves I would give Him the glory for it. Suddenly it rose in prominence in my mind and I wondered if it was all in my imagination. I love being led by the Spirit of God.

Who cares?

On my doorstep the next morning was a paper bag full of goodies from a friend. She had told me she was going to give me the left over food she had before her and her husband returned north for the summer; they are snowbirds.

I forgot all about that she told me what she was going to do, but she did not tell me what she would include in the bag.

It was a full weeks worth of groceries (for me at least) and inside was a small jar of strawberry preserves. Enough to satisfy the need I had expressed.

I wish to express something here that I think is important to the church at large which, is the whole reason that I write for Jesus. It was something that Jesus and I had decided to do back in the 60’s.

The Kennedy era was a large time block where many people believed that God was inactive in their lives and that some folks imagined that He was dead.

This thought rattles me to this day!

To assume that God is dead because He does not answer our prayers is ludicrous! I do not believe in sloppy Agape or other such fallacies, but when it comes to God being real there is no doubt in my mind that He is real.

The difference between me and other saints is that miracles happen all the time to me. (see the miracle I wrote about leukemia on this site). I made a deal with Jesus that if He provided the miracle I was going to “goodmouth” or announce it to the whole world if I could.

Believersbay.com now makes it possible to do just that and regardless of my perfection status and growth in Jesus we have had an iron-clad contract and we have seen with our very own eyes the glorious miracles we talk about here.

It is not an unusual thing for us; it is the normal thing for us to do.

I, personally, have come close to death on three separate occasions and the Lord Jesus has delivered me from them all. One year after the riot in Attica prison my life was threatened by a black Muslim.

Once I walked into the middle of an armed robbery.

Last year I had a stroke and while I may be slower now; I am still using all my energy to proclaim that Jesus heals and delivers from death, and sickness. He is still providing for the saints who love Him and proclaim Him as Lord.

Do you want to see more miracles; then talk about what you have seen and gone through, and watch Him do His part, and give more miracles, so He can get more glory. The enemy wants to take away glory from Jesus, and receive it himself.

They both want the same thing from us.

God’s retirement plan, however, has the enemy beat. Remember you cannot out give God.