This winter our furnace stopped working. For Midwesterners that is actually a very big deal. The repairman said because of the age of the unit combined with how much money the parts/labor were that the best option would be to 'bite the bullet' and purchase a new HVAC unit. Six thousand dollars later we had a warm house again. This massive bill meant that our tax return was spent before we even received it. We pastors count on those annual tax refunds. This also meant that our savings account was almost completely depleted (which does not take much). I am sure many of you can relate to this. Living paycheck to paycheck is truly nothing to complain about. It is hard enough to manifest total reliance on God when we have a week's worth of food in our pantries (which is true of most Americans). This explains why we rarely, if ever, pray "give us THIS DAY our daily bread."
Anyways, just this week we had some more unexpected expenses involving automobiles, home repairs, and few other things. Sometimes all the planets in life seem to collide, don't they? I wrote the following text message to my brother in Christ and deacon chairman Dick Hunziker. Tires are apparently below legal driving limit. Wash machine not working (again) and we're still recovering from the cost of replacing the furnace and air conditioner this winter. Prayer welcomed.
Dick wrote back, We know exactly where you are coming from as we raised six kids ourselves. The good news is that God will supply the needs. To which I replied, God always provides. The Lord does not give us everything we want (thank goodness for that), but He does promise to take care of all our needs (see Matthew 6:25-34)!
Now for the conclusion of our story. Not having a functioning wash machine is a challenge for large households. You mothers out there know how fast family laundry backs up and how it often feels like you run an around the clock laundry mat (because you basically do). Thankfully, we had a friendly neighbor who let us bring a few loads over to her house. While making a few visits to and fro another neighbor from across the street stopped by to find out what all the activity was about. To make a long story short, the next day this same neighbor dropped by to get our home address because he felt led to replace Andrea's broken wash machine with a new one. I tried to talk our elderly neighbor out of this act of kindness but he would hear none of it. His mind was made up. All I could do was give him a hug and thank the Lord for his watch care over us. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 107)! Phil. 4:19, And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
