Bananas for me (and you)!

I don’t know if you know it, but God is bananas over you. Literally bananas. I use this phrase because, I love it, and you know how much I love bananas. I have been so grateful that every mission field I have been too has been replete with bananas and little God winks to go with them.

For instance, you may remember that my first time in Kenya was marked by the “Banana Song.” I knew God was serious about spreading joy through this ridiculous song into every slum, every school, every AIDS clinic and everywhere else. Like on the final day of my work at Redeemer School, before I was to leave for Kenya, a teenager of a friend showed up to the day dressed in a banana costume for absolutely NO reason. I promise, it was a God wink to me for sure. In Uganda, bananas are growing on trees everywhere, and in Nepal, though they are mostly imported and not growing in abundance, I can find them in most markets. I have also found a little Buddhist vegan shop that sells banana buckwheat pancakes here!

You also may remember that one of my favourite miracles in Nepal was the “banana boy miracle (see previous blog post).” And you may not know, but I could singularly live on bananas. Even my Nepali friend Ashish, who knows I love bananas, has asked his didi to make me her famous banana lassi on my next visit. I am so thankful that bananas are everywhere I have been sent. Bananas are LIFE.

When one is on the mission field for any length of time, you learn to live without the expectation of finding anything you need or want. However, when God is your friend, and you trust Him to meet your needs and even your wants from time to time, anything is possible and He delights to show you just how bananas He is over you.

This week, I had been suffering from pretty severe leg cramps sometimes keeping me up at night and persisting through the day. On the day it was the worst, I was so busy with various ministry projects that I was making my own self dizzy, and simply did not have time to go hunt down a banana, even though I suspected it might help me.

Around 8pm, I was at the last store, trying to gather the supplies for the s’mores party, and my friend Bijay was waiting outside with his motorcycle to take me home. He had generously asked if he could help me as he knew I was having trouble locating supplies. As I rushed outside so he could get home to his family, I realised I still really wanted and needed a banana and sent up a prayer to the Lord saying “Father, please help me to find a banana before I go to sleep tonight.”

As I found Bijay in the crowd, much to my amazement, there he was, holding a banana which he sheepishly extended to me. He said “I was only going to buy one banana but I felt the Lord nudge me that I should buy two.” “You don’t want this banana do you?”

With tears in my eyes, and a deep gratitude in my heart, I gave him all the praise I could for such good listening and obeying to the Lord, and took it as if I was taking the queen’s gold. I hardly dared to eat it. My Father is a good Father, actually, He is the VERY best Father. He bought me a banana, because He is bananas for me too.

I pray that through whatever needs and wants that you have, you trust Him to meet them too. He loves to shower us with banana blessings, to show us just how crazy He is over us. He is a Father who delights in His children. May you find deep reassurance there today.

BraveBANANABlessings!