Meant To Be

Last Saturday, my husband and I went thrift store shopping to see what rare and beautiful treasures we could find.  Well, I ended up finding this…

...a long, brightly colored, plaid and pleated skirt.  It's not a skirt I would typically be drawn to, but I fell in love with it because it reminded me so much of the school uniforms that I used to wear when I was younger, and I was also excited to try and turn something that looked a little "old-fashioned" into something modern and cool.  When I tried on the skirt, it fit like a glove.  The length was a bit too long, but nothing that a quick hem couldn't fix.  In that moment, I felt like this skirt had to be mine.  

I walked out of the dressing room and over to the cashier to purchase my new skirt when I suddenly felt like I shouldn’t buy it.  I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t have that peace in my heart that I check for before buying something.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes with money in the past (buying a whole lot of things that I didn’t need), so I’ve learned to always ask God for wisdom when making purchases, whether big or small.  This was definitely a small purchase – the skirt only cost $6.99 – but I didn’t have peace about buying it, so I left it on the rack and walked out.  Maybe it just wasn't meant to be...

Usually, when I walk away from a purchase I never think about it again, but this skirt would not leave my head.  I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it.  So, I decided I would take another trip to the thrift store just to see if the skirt was still there.  If it was, then great; if not, then oh well.            

As soon as I got to the store, I went straight to the rack where I left the skirt on Saturday.  My heart was racing.  I scanned through the entire rack, pushing one skirt aside after another, praying that I would find it.  Then, just when I was about to give up...there it was.  On the rack directly behind the one that I was looking at, I spotted the crazy colored plaid skirt I was searching for.  I quickly walked over to the other aisle and picked up the skirt as fast as I could. (There was another woman there who also seemed to have an affection for long plaid skirts, so I had to grab it before she did!)

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down from all of the excitement, and then I began to look through the rack to see if there was anything else that I liked.  I grabbed a handful of other skirts that I thought were cute and hurried over to the dressing room to try them all on.  With each skirt that I put on, the smile on my face grew bigger and bigger – each skirt fit perfectly and they were in excellent condition.  I was so happy and thankful that I did not buy the plaid skirt on Saturday when I originally found it.  If I had bought it on Saturday, then I wouldn't have gone back to the thrift store and I probably would've missed out on the blessing of finding four more fabulous skirts. 

When I walked over to the cashier this time, I had complete peace about making this purchase.  With a huge smile on my face, I handed over five skirts and one sweater to the lady behind the counter, and she said that my total was $43.24.  I pulled out my envelope which had my clothing money in it, and I had $43.25 – the exact amount of money that I needed to buy the clothes.  It was perfect.  At that moment, I knew for sure that this purchase (and the plaid skirt) was simply meant to be.