Girl picking up brown handbag in street

A Handbag Story and God’s Provision and Faithfulness

I’ve come a lot of trials and tough times in the last few years. I am actually walking through darkness right now, and I think this is just the perfect time to share a testimony of God’s faithfulness.

I’m a girly girl and I love shoes and handbags, especially brown leathered ones. But they’re expensive and I don’t have much money. This is the story:

A few years ago, I was given a nice, brown-leathered handbag as a Christmas gift (let’s call it bag #1). I loved it, but after a few years I realized I needed a bigger one. But I didn’t want to spend £20 to get a new one that wouldn’t even last a year. So I was thinking/praying “I need a new one, oh and I’d love a bigger brown-leathered one; they’re classy and last longer. But I don’t have the money for one, they’re kind of really expensive –and I can’t ask one as a gift either.” And that’s it. I never actually prayed for one.

2 weeks later as I was loading my car, I noticed a bag on the pavement. I’m into arts and crafts so I always check on stuff I find on the street just in case I can do something with it, so I go and fetch it and realize it is brown-leathered. And big. So I’m happy and I think “cool!! I needed one”. My mum-who’s with me-just notices a handle is broken. “Just get rid of it!”. I decide to keep it and bring it to my place. Then I go back to my car and go away for a few days and forget about the bag.

When I come back, I see that bag lying on the floor and decide to have a proper look at it. Apart from the broken handle, it is almost new.

I realize it is a luxury brand–very famous in my country. And then, I remember my prayer/ thoughts –I needed a bigger handbag and I wanted it brown-leathered. I can hardly breathe -has God answered my prayer?? I check on the price on the internet- £350!! So I start telling my friends about it and one says, “You can’t keep it –someone probably got mugged”.

So the next morning, off I go to the police station. The one closest to home is closed, so I start walking to the next one. And I’m walking, I notice a police van watching a busy street. I go and talk to the policemen and explain the whole thing – found this expensive bag, someone probably got mugged, etc. They just start laughing: “If there’s no name in it… just keep it!”

So I kept it with the policemen’s blessing – and got the handle fixed for £20. Just the price of a regular fabric handbag J And I got bag #2.

After this, I started telling the story to show how God had answered my prayer. It’s not just about a handbag, it’s about God providing quality stuff to his children! I would often share the story and also remember about it whenever I felt lost or sad –just as a reminder of God’s goodness. This (along with other answered prayers) is a real reminder that God is good and generous.

3 years after that, my small, brown-leathered handbag (bag #1) was too old, so I decided to get a new one. The one I really liked was too expensive, so I got the smaller version on the internet from a shop that would only sell online in my country. I love their brand, but no one knows about it. So I got my brown-leathered handbag #3.

I happened to be in a desperate situation, and nothing seemed to work for a way out, not even prayer. I was desperate and the situation seemed too long to me –I’d been there for almost a year and often prayed God for help. At a certain point (and that was 4 months after I got handbag #3), it got really, really worse and I just felt like giving up the whole thing. One night I started crying and crying to God for help, trying to remember his goodness –and the handbag story. Then I fell asleep.

Next morning, I’m walking to work. It’s raining, and I see people in the neighbourhood have left stuff on the street and I see a handbag on the side of the pavement. I just smile to myself –”once was enough!” and go on walking. And then suddenly I see another bag at my feet. It’s brown-leathered so my eye gets caught and I pick it up. Then I can hardly breathe.

It’s just the bigger version of bag #3 –the one I didn’t buy because it was too expensive…!! Same brand, same colour, same model, same features (pockets, zips) same everything apart from the fact it was bigger. SO brand-new it smelt of leather. WHAT ON EARTH?! I was crying my eyes out and crying to God the night before and the next morning at 8.30am I find my dream handbag – for the second time, lying at my feet! A brand that is not sold in my country that you only get from the Internet.

For to me this is not about having a nice handbag–this is about God’s goodness. God telling me:

  • I know you so well. I know your likes and dislikes. (My dream bag)
  • I can create anything out of nothing (how did this bag just appeared at my feet?)
  • I’m faithful (to me the first handbag story really WAS about God’s goodness).

I called my mum. She knows nothing about the desperate situation I’m in, she’d get too worried. As I tell her the handbag story she goes “wow, that’s a miracle–that’s God telling you he is right there with you”.

As I write this testimony, I’m still in that hopeless situation and things really don’t look better. But what can I say but what a great God we have. He knows us by name, he can work miracles, and most of all, he is right with us and sticks with us in the midst of total darkness.

I love my new handbag, and I love to see the faces people make when I tell them I have found another brown-leathered handbag on the street, they can’t believe it; they go “again?!”. A friend came up to me really confused “is that a new bag? No wait –I’ve seen it before- no wait, that’s a new one, right?”

Christian friends say I’m blessed, non-Christians say I’m lucky. I’m the daughter of an incredible God. I don’t know how or when my problems will be fixed but I really do NOT worry about that. God has proven faithful even before fixing all this.

5 Comments

  1. David 7/16/2016
  2. Lin 7/16/2016
  3. Liz 7/18/2016
  4. Staci 11/12/2016
  5. Brian 2/27/2022

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