Small Miracles

This month I had one of those awful moments where you would give anything to back up time just one second. In this age of technology, we get so used to the ability to undo our last move. So, in the physical world, it is a brutal realization when that cannot be done. And sometimes there is a great cost for a split second of stupidity.

We heat our house primarily with wood. My husband and I spend a great deal of time cutting, hauling and stacking wood. We have gotten all of it for free, when the city is cutting trees down, when people are thinning their woods, cleaning out dead wood, cutting down diseased trees. It is a lot of work, but saves us a lot of money and having a constant glowing fire in our living room adds unquantifiable enrichment to our home.

I was adding wood to the fire, as I do countless times a day. I stacked it all in there with nice gaps for the air to flow and keep the fire burning hot. As I went to close the airtight glass door, a corner of a log was sticking out just a little too far. Now, I have gotten into a habit, which until now never occurred to me as a stupid habit... And that is that when the logs don't fit, I give the door a shove... the small, light logs give way to the heavy door, and everything fits. Well, not this time. I pushed the door, heard the crunch of glass, and instantly the entire door was a spider web of broken glass.

My husband and I live quite comfortably on a small income. But every January, it's a little dicey. Christmas expenses, then a month off of teaching and the income that comes with it, and we pay our property tax out of pocket every 6 months, which of course is due in January. A little planning and saving and a lot of God's favor and we always have what we need, but there is usually a moment of panic. It is NOT a time for stupid expensive mistakes.

Thankfully my husband has grown accustomed to living with a clumsy person, and is very gracious. I have often joked with him that the benefit of living with someone as clumsy as myself, is that you get to witness God's provision so much more.

Well, it was the Friday before the holiday weekend. I knew that whatever I did not accomplish toward fixing this door, would have to wait until Wednesday. And when you are talking about your primary source of heat, there's a sense of urgency. I called the company of the stove, which happens to be out of Canada. There is no model number to be found without actually removing the fireplace from the wall, so no one could really help me. I called local stove shops, my chimney sweep, I spent the whole day online and on the phone. All day I felt jittery and nervous, afraid that I was going to find out that the solution would be beyond our finances.

Every time I walked into my living room, I could not pull my eyes away from that shattered door. I kept silently pleading with God, but feeling silly asking him to heal my door. Finally, out loud, I said, "Jesus, please heal my door." Instantly I laughed at myself and how foolish I felt. "This will never work, I'm not praying with any faith at all!" Immediately I felt God's voice say, "As if your lack of faith could stop me."

I got that shuddery, goosebumpy feeling all over. You know, when you feel like you just shrunk to the size of a cockroach... but it's so good. I love feeling put in my place by the Almighty King of the Universe.

After looking at new doors and pieces of tempered glass online that no one could tell me which one I needed, and pricing whole new furnaces, I was directed by my chimney sweep to a little local shop. It is one of the only places still around that custom cuts glass for stoves. I called them, found out I could bring in my door right then and they would cut the glass and fit it into the door for me. It cost $159, which is a hefty chunk of change for a small piece of glass, but SOOO much cheaper than a new fireplace.

Here is the incredible part. While waiting for my glass to be cut, I got the notice for my property tax that was about to be due. In the time that we have lived in this house, it has always been about $1000, and that is how much I had set aside. This six months though, it was miraculously $817. And God said, "Ha!"