I once heard that God is concerned about the smallest details of our lives; whatever concerns us is of importance to Him. It’s not that the thing has significance on a wide-scale but that it ties up our focus, our energy, and may preoccupy our mind with worry.

In the early nineties, when I was working as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychiatry, I was invited to do a day-long presentation for an Occupational Health Nurses state conference. Previously, I’d done inservice classes on working with patients with mental health needs but never a large event. I had nothing in my closet that was suitable for a Presenter at that level. I was in that busy stage of life, working mom with two elementary age boys. I commuted forty minutes to work and was always in a rush to pick my sons up from afterschool. The conference was just days away and I had one afternoon when I could weasel in time to shop.

Remembering that God was concerned about this concern in my life, I prayed for the shopping trip. I scanned the racks and found a royal blue belted dress that fit perfectly. The only problem was it was missing some of the decorative gold buttons. Because of that, it had been marked down significantly.

“That’s an easy fix,” I said to myself, purchased the dress, and made my forty-minute drive in time to pick up my sons.

I replaced all the buttons and on the day of the presentation was confident standing before the room of nurses. The efficiency of finding that dress, in my favorite color with the perfect fit, stayed in my mind as an example of turning over even the smallest thing to God.

Now, when I look at the family pictures on my hutch, I see one from my son, Brooks’s wedding that reminds me of another time when I prayed about a shopping trip. In January of 2012, it was less than a month until he and Emily would marry. I’d found my mother-of-the-groom’s dress — a sleeveless blue silk with a matching bolero.

I needed to take Mama and my mother-in-law, Mary Dell to find their grandmother-of-the-groom dresses. Mama was in a wheelchair and Mary Dell needed a shopping cart for support. We had to find something that day because there was no other time when we could all go. After a slow start helping Mama through breakfast and getting ready, then driving across town for Mary Dell, we headed to a large clothing store that was thirty minutes away. Mary Dell always liked shopping and enjoyed spending time with Mama — who was also a Mary.

By the time we arrived at the store, I was tired from the effort of getting us there. I prayed for patience and for success in finding dresses that would look great on the grandmothers. We picked out several and slowly made our way to side-by-side dressing rooms. Mama could only stand for a short while. I quickly helped her into a purple dress and jacket while MeMa tried on the rose-colored dress and jacket of the same style. When MeMa was dressed she stood beside Mama and they looked at their reflection in the mirror.

Mary Dell smiled and said, “Look, Mary. We’re twins!”

How happy I was to see her joy and to witness both grandmothers looking great in the outfits that appeared to have been custom-made.

When I look at the wedding pictures and see how Brooks was delighted that both grandmothers were there, I’m grateful for that successful shopping trip. I didn’t intend to find jewel-toned dresses, the kind that are so sharp in photographs. But their dresses and mine in peacock blue were the colors of richly answered prayers that reminded me that God hears our concerns, even about the small things.