Linda Cianfarra, age fourteen, awoke lying on her mattress, stripped of the sheets and blankets. This young fourteen-year-old girl could not understand why she was looking into the stars. A sailor, Bernabe Garcia, aboard the ship Stockholm heard the girl's cries and found her on the deck. Her arm was broken and she was unable to sit up. Garcia picked her up off her bed and carried her to the ship's hospital. When asked for her name, she said, "Linda Morgan." The purser of the Stockholm, Curt Dawe, could not find her name on the passenger list. Linda then thought that it might be listed using her stepfather's name, Cianfarra. Again the purser could not find her name on the passenger list. They then asked Linda where she was traveling from and she answered, "Madrid." As Linda began to weep, she said, "Isn't this the Andrea Doria." Dawe replied, "No, this is not the Andrea Doria. This is the Stockholm."

Linda Morgan Cianfarra, the daughter of the famous newscaster, Edward P. Morgan, was picked up and carried on the wreckage of her bed by the bow of the Stockholm after the collision. The book titled, "Saved," which documented the events of the sinking of the Andrea Doria described what happened.

"The bow of the Stockholm had sliced into her cabin directly beneath her bunk next to the porthole, smashing her bed. It had hurled Linda's half sister, Joan into the sea where she perished. It had fatally torn her stepfather, Camille Cianfarra. It had thrown her mother, Jane Cianfarra, into the adjacent cabin where she lay almost hopelessly trapped.

Then, as the Stockholm's bow retread from the Andrea Doria's crushed innards, it lifted Linda and her mattress almost gently out of the doomed ship and deposited her safely on the Swedish liner. Without ever comprehending that there was a collision or that her cabin had been demolished and her family decimated, Linda lay unconscious on the deck without any apparent serious injury until the sailor herd her frightened plea for help. 'It's a miracle,' Garcia whispered solemnly."

God's ways are unsearchable! Who would have ever imagined such a bizarre account? How very unlikely the series of events that deliver Linda Morgan to the deck of the Stockholm!

The examples of God's incredible nature of God's chosen means of provision cover the pages of the Bible:

A gentile woman, facing hunger and gleaning a field, is the mother of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, the father of David, and in the line of Christ

A starving, dying widow would sustain Elijah.

A Samaritan would help a Jewish man who was mugged on the highway.

A dying slave points the way to King David as he seeks to rescue his family

A Jewish captive who delivers her people from the gallows built by Haman

A baby floating down the Nile to deliver the Jews from 400 years of bondage

A young man sold into slavery by his brothers, and falsely imprisoned, to deliver the nation of Israel from famine.

Four lepers, prepared to die, end up delivering the city by deciding to walk into the enemies camp.

A harlot named Rahab who would end up in the line of Christ

A babe in a manager, born in a land under Roman rule, to a poor family, is the Messiah!

God will, and He does, use the unusual and the most unlikely. We may envision the most likely solution to our trials. Therefore, we can foolishly miss His provision. Failing to appreciate this principle will blind one's eyes to God's new, unusual, and ever-changing means of provision. Remember, God's ways are past finding out and are unsearchable!

In Fred Kelly's authorized biography of the Wright Brothers O, Kelly reveals what event contributed to Wilbur's solution of one of the most plaguing problems of manned flight. The Wright brothers had conceived of a wing design that allowed two-thirds of each wing to rotate on a shaft in one direction while the opposite wing rotated in the other direction. The purpose of the movable wings section was to change the lift characteristics of opposite wings which would allow the aircraft to turn in the air. By seeking to change the contour of opposite wings, greater lift was created on one wing and less on the other. However, a persistent problem plagued such an approach. The shafts that supported each wing added additional weight to the craft and could not adequately support the weight of the wings.

One night, some five or six weeks later, Wilbur was surprisingly struck with the solution by looking at a simple bicycle tube box. Wilbur came home from the bicycle shop and enthusiastically told Orville of an idea upon which he had hit.

A customer had dropped in to buy an inner tube for a tire. Wilbur had taken the tube from the pasteboard box it came in and was toying with the box while talking to the customer. As he twisted the box he observed that though the vertical sides were rigid endwise, the top and bottom sides could be twisted to have different angles at the opposite ends. Why, he thought, couldn't the wings of a gliding machine be warped from one end to the other in this same way? Thus the wings could be put at a great angle at one side than at the other, without structural weakness. That plan seemed so satisfactory that the Wrights did not look for or consider any other method. Orville Wright later wrote "Learning the secret of flight from a bird was a good deal like learning the secret of magic from a magician. After you once know the trick, you see things that you did not notice when you did not know exactly what to look for. God's ways are unsearchable! He is unquestionably amazing in His ways for directing the lives of people, the courses of nations, and the enterprising changes in the world!

We need to put ourselves into the marvelous hands of God and trust His multicolored ways in meeting our pressures of life. We can do and dare anything when He is guiding us. We may have missed God's provision because we could not or would not admit that God has a right to do His will, His way, in the affairs of men. As does the Spirit of God, so does our Lord in meeting our needs, He bloweth where and how He willeth as he supplies the needs of His people.

At times we are not looking for the Lord's unusual provisions and therefore we do not see them. Often we only see what we are looking for and when we are not looking for God's amazing and creative methods of provision, we never see them. Therefore, we may also fail to thank Him as well. At times we can subtly believe that God will solve our problems according to our preconceived way. We may subconsciously believe that there really is not any other way that a trial or need can be handled. Truthfully, there are an absolute infinite number of alternatives that God entertains to meet our needs. The Lord always selects the very best of the best. It is only in our very limited minds that we may conclude that there are very few alternatives available to Him. However, it is only as we honestly admit the overflow of divine solutions that we will sincerely do what Proverbs 3:5-6 calls on us to do, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."

Instead of looking for that sudden influx of money, perhaps God is going to provide a better or even a second job. If God provides through a second job, and even through a very demanding second job, is God meeting your needs? Is he allowed to meet your needs that way?

Instead of God supernaturally meeting the psychological and emotional needs of a son or daughter, perhaps God is going to demote you to a lower position at work that may increase your financial pressures but it may also allow you more time with your children. Is He allowed to help your children through that avenue?

God may grace you with a wonderful wife who has the ability to "supernaturally" turn a house into a beautiful home, rather than give you that newer and larger house. Can God make your present home nicer through that method or must He give you that other house before you thank Him?

God may choose to grace you with children who love the Lord rather than give you the success you are seeking in the business world. Can God take away a spouse to answer your prayer for the salvation of another loved one or maybe a wayward child?

Is God allowed to move a pastor's ministry through a church turmoil to place where his children will have the opportunity to experience a great Christian education? Or does the Lord only move His people through times of peace?

Can you see His grace even when He is not working according to your personally predetermined method of provision? Or does the Lord have to do it according to your categories of thought?

Can you thank Him even when you do not see Him working? Or does God have to show you what He is doing before you praise His name?

Can God be God?