The Cat's Pyjamas.

At the age of twenty one, I was completing my third year of art school. I shared a comfortable and neat rental house with friends, in Newcastle, a city a few hours north of Sydney. I had just enough money to pay for rent, food, utilities and a couple of bus rides to school per week. Whatever money was left over, I would put aside to save up to buy a coach ticket to travel to see my boyfriend (now husband) up the coast, once or twice a month.

In this period of my life I was scrounging. I would cut costs wherever I could and truly took notice of every penny. The city where I lived had this great system where the business centre and surrounding areas were fare free bus zones. I lived just outside of town, but my art school was in the centre of Necastle, so often, I would walk around two kilometres to the start of the fare free zone, (or walk home from the cutt off ) in order to catch the bus for free. 

I ate very simply in those days, often, dinners consisted of dehydrated carbonara or alfredo pasta sachets that I would cook up quickly on the stove top, along with frozen vegies and cheap cuts of meat. I hardly ate out and instead I would cook meals in bulk and freeze them. I was viewed as a “tight” kind of person by friends and I was failing miserably at expressing generosity. I had given my life to Jesus a little while prior to this period but spiritually, growth was somewhat slow. Despite my stingy behaviour and living, Daddy God was extremely gracious and generous with me.

Winter of 2005 had hit and the temperature was dropping. I was sitting in the loungeroom at home feeling the cold bite at my skin and thought to myself; How good would a new pair of winter pyjamas and some black tights be?! I quickly quashed these thoughts as I remembered my financial situation; such items would simply not fit into my super tight budget. Not long after sprouting those thoughts of soft, snug pyjamas, (a couple weeks or less, from memory) I was to receive a surprise in the mail.

I rarely received anything in our sturdy, red brick letterbox so I was intruiged to find a package within its frame when I arrived home from school one afternoon. As I scanned the parcel for the identity of the sender, I realised it had come from my dear Nana in Sydney. Nana had not sent anything to my home prior to this, she usually saved gift giving for home visits at her place in Sydney. As I opened the package with anticipation, I wondered what could be inside. Suddenly, shiny, pink fabric flashed before my eyes and a beautiful set of soft, satin pyjamas unfurled. Cosy, soft and warm, these were perfect, pink pyjamas for the winter! Even more amazing was the pair of thick black tights, folded neatly, sitting underneath. I sat so overjoyed and then I realised: the LORD had answered my hearts desires. Not even a prayer or a spoken word but He had been listening to my very thoughts and supplied my needs!

“Matthew 6:8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”

Matthew 6:28-30 “And why ye take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall not He much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

God’s love for us is beyond amazing. I have delighted in the many surprises Jesus has lavished on me, in my life and the lives of others. God is just so gracious and ready to meet us where we are at. God has taught me generosity, through His deep pockets, full of grace. Daddy God provides for His children and He will often go above what we can imagine.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

I shared my sweet testimony of Jesus' miraculous package of love, whilst chatting with my dear uncle over the phone, back in 2022. Almost seventeen years after I received that gift, God revealed the meaning of another loving detail to the story I had previously missed. The pyjamas were not only pink but had pictures of pretty cats printed all over them; the LORD had not just given me any pyjamas but, ‘The Cat’s Pyjamas’.

Matthew 6:25-26 “Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are ye not much more than they?”

2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

With God's love,

Emma.