God Moments

Coffee on the King

By grace post

Casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

It was a muggy Wednesday afternoon in August, as I climbed into my car with Walmart bags in hand. I wasn’t doing well. My parents had dropped me off for my Fall semester at SAGU only a few days before, and the anxiety that I’d spent all summer battling was at an all-time high. Desperate for a pick-me-up, I exited the Waxahachie Walmart parking lot and made my way to what I hoped would bring my afternoon reprieve – Starbucks.

I was frustrated with God. Having returned home from a summer missions trip only a few months before, I never could have imagined the season of struggle ahead of me. In a matter of only a few months, it seemed my world had flipped entirely upside down.

As I pulled into the drive-through and ordered my staple Grande Iced White Chocolate Mocha, I began to cry for what felt like the thousandth time that summer. I was at my wit's end.

How did I get here, God? I wondered to myself. The days of anxiety seemed never-ending, and I couldn’t help but wonder how God could feel so far away. I didn’t have the words to convey how overwhelming it all was, so I spoke to God the only way I knew how. I spoke the language of tears.

I tried to pull myself together as I pulled up to the drive-through window. Breakdown time was over. Time to set the feelings aside and move on with your day. However, as I extended my card toward the employee at the window, I was met with resistance. The worker handed me a Venti Iced White Chocolate Mocha free of charge while gesturing my card away.

“Today your coffee is on The King,” they told me.

I sat, baffled, unable to process the words I’d just heard. God surely does have a sense of humor. Maybe it was the dry tear tracks running down my face that gave my struggle away. Maybe God had spoken to them and told them that I really needed a free coffee. Whatever the reason, in that moment it seemed as though Jesus had reached down from Heaven and paid for my coffee. Like a father handing his daughter a chocolate chip cookie on a rainy day.

I reluctantly took the drink and drove off, still befuddled. God…I thought toward Heaven as the weight of the interaction settled in my soul. The barista’s simple words rang in my head over and over again, “Today, your coffee is on The King.” It was only a moment before new tears began to flow.

As I turned right by RaceTrac onto Northgate Dr., I was reminded of something I’d forgotten in the midst of that gloomy August afternoon. Despite my anxiety and loneliness, I was reminded of the goodness and faithfulness of my God. I was reminded of the love of my heavenly Father. I was reminded that my God sees me.

Though there were still rough days to come, God left me with a stone of remembrance that day. Not only did He remind me of His promise to never leave or forsake me, He showed me that I am His daughter, no matter what life brings or the struggles I face. And that, as a child of God, my coffee is always on The King.