Have you ever looked back and realized that God was taking care of you long before you understood why?

For a long time, I thought my job was just something I needed to survive.

A way to pay the bills.

A season I had to endure.

But lately, I’ve been seeing it differently.

I’m realizing now that this job wasn’t random.

It wasn’t a delay.

It wasn’t God overlooking me.

It was preparation.

At the time, I thought the biggest gift it gave me was financial stability. And that mattered—I needed it. God knew that. He always does. But what I couldn’t see then was that the deeper work was happening quietly, underneath the surface.

“You were being held, even when you didn’t know it.”

This work became a kind of refuge for me.

A place to breathe.

A reason to step away when staying too close would have cost me more than I could afford to lose.

It created just enough distance to keep my heart from breaking too soon.

Just enough structure to keep me steady.

Just enough purpose to help me remain where I needed to be—for longer than I thought I could.

Not because everything was easy.

But because something precious still needed protecting.

“Sometimes God saves us by giving us somewhere else to stand.”

This job strengthened parts of me I didn’t yet know I would need.

It taught my mind how to stay steady under pressure.

It trained my emotions to keep going without hardening.

It kept my body moving when grief and exhaustion could have easily frozen me in place.

If not for this work—this routine, this responsibility—I think I would have given up much earlier than I realize. I would have broken down at a point where getting back up would have felt impossible. Not because I was weak, but because I was already carrying so much.

God knew that.

So He didn’t just rescue me from something.

He protected me through something.

There were days I showed up on autopilot, unaware that simply showing up was an act of grace. Days when I thought I was barely holding it together, when in reality, God was quietly holding me together Himself.

“What felt ordinary was actually mercy in disguise.”

Only now, looking back, do I see how intentional it all was. How God placed me exactly where I needed to be—not to punish me, not to stall my life, but to prepare me for something I wasn’t ready to name yet.

I didn’t know what was coming.

But God did.

And He took care of me before I even knew I needed taking care of.

This realization doesn’t make the season perfect or painless. But it makes it sacred. It reminds me that God’s care is often practical, not dramatic. That His protection sometimes looks like stability instead of escape.

Sometimes, preparation feels like staying.

Sometimes, love looks like routine.

Sometimes, grace wears the clothes of an ordinary job.

And sometimes, only later do we realize:

we were never forgotten—we were being formed.

“I see it now—God knew what I needed, and He provided it before I ever knew to ask.”

Until next time,