A Soldier’s Thanksgiving Miracle

How God demonstrated His incredible providence to a soldier in need.

As we approach Thanksgiving, I am reminded of an event that took place in 1998 that changed my life and my understanding of faith, God, and His love for us. At that time, I was still in the US Army as a Specialist E-4, making a mere $1,056 per month. As I was stationed at Site-R, a remote underground facility in rural PA, I was forced to live off-base in the civilian economy without on-base housing and the support facilities normally offered to a young soldier. I also had a pregnant wife and two young boys I was financially supporting at the time and was struggling to adapt to family life, having just returned from a 1-year unaccompanied tour in South Korea. It was some of the most difficult time we’ve had in our lives. My self-confidence was at an all-time low, in my ability to provide for my family.

The month before, I had taken what little extra money and had bought Melodee a new turkey roaster in preparation for Thanksgiving, a holiday which I had completely missed the year before. I wanted to make this one special. The year before, while stationed in South Korea, I had gotten stuck with guard duty and by the time I was relieved from duty, I arrived at the NCO club where they were hosting the base Thanksgiving celebration, only to find there was no more turkey, or stuffing, or mash potatoes. It was truly depressing. I was already lonely missing my family, living in a foreign land, back before the advent of modern technology, making it very expensive to communicate with my family. Maybe it was, all of the happy memories of times spent with family on Thanksgiving past that made it that much more unbearable to be deprived of even a small representation of a family experience on that day. I needed to make it right by having a special Thanksgiving with my wife and kids to make it up.

I was excited with expectation to celebrate the first holiday back with my family and then the unexpected occurred. Our one and only car broke down. I had no savings, so the money to fix my car had to come out of our general budget, and it drained what little money we had for food. When Melodee asked for money to buy a turkey and the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner, I had to hang my head in shame as I held to tell her there was no money left to buy groceries. She must have detected the deep shame I felt, because she responded with, “Don’t worry. Look we have chicken thighs here in the freezer we can use.” She also pointed out we had a box of instant mashed potatoes, and she opened up the cupboard to find the kool-aid packets, but unfortunately, we were out of sugar. Again, I felt like less than a man as I had failed to provide.

Melodee looked at me with understanding in her eyes and suggested that we pray. I remember thinking, “it’s a little late for that!”, and like a mind reader, she said, “God is not bound by time. He is outside of it. He can hear in the future and answer in the past.” To me, this made no sense, but none the less, I bowed my head in prayer, if for no other reason but to humor her. She then faithfully prayed as if God had already put into motion what would be necessary to provide all of our needs. She asked God to provide for everything we needed for Thanksgiving and specifically asked God to provide sugar.  Within minutes, of her saying “Amen!”, there was a knock at the door of our apartment.

I opened the door to find an older gentleman who looked vaguely familiar standing there. We had met him at a local church we had visited a couple weeks earlier. In his hands were two bags of groceries and a 20 lbs. turkey. He told us that their church had decided that year to bless some local families with everything needed for a full Thanksgiving meal. My wife took the items from the man and thanking him the man went on his way to presumedly deliver to some other families as well. In shock, I closed the door. Then, Melodee opened the first grocery bag and sitting right on top was a 5 lbs bag of sugar. I broke down in tears. God had just provided in a way that only He could have. He had done what just minutes before I had thought impossible.

I had mentioned to no one in that church that we were hurting financially. I was too proud to ask for help, but God showed me that day that He loved me and knew our needs. As the good book says in Romans 8:39 that, “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I now knew that included time. Finally, because God loves to show off and has a sense of humor, the turkey was so large I had to break the legs to fit it in the turkey roaster. Needless to say, I will never forget that day and am reminded of it every time I see a 5 lbs bag of sugar.