God's Provision Even in the Details

This week has been less than fantastic at our house. I have been sick Saturday through, well, I still am, even after taking a day off work on Monday and going to the doctor. I've got the cough-that-won't-let-go once again, like I do every year at this time of year. So I was really thrilled Monday night when they were calling for snow. Another day of rest! (I thought) I will be back to normal in no time! (I thought) No. It did not snow. I awoke early Tuesday morning, still hacking up a lung and forced my way through a less than hot shower because our hot water heater has been a (not nice word) lately. And don't even get me started on our leaky tub issue. That is for another blog post.

Well, again last night they called for snow, and, even though I tried so hard not to get my hopes up, I did. So I took my codine-laden cough syrup and went to bed early, secretly thinking I would enjoy a great night's rest and get to sleep gloriously late this morning. No again. At 1:30 in the morning I wake up to a clanging so loud I thought surely our house was falling down, only to find my husband trapsing around in his hiking boots and coat and digging in every drawer in our house for a flashlight. Of course my now-codine-laden self thought it must only be a dream and sure enough when I awoke an hour later to my husband coming quietly to bed I thought I must have imagined the whole thing.

Until. I snuggle up to Patrick and asked in a very serene, half-drowsy voice, "Is it snowing yet??" "Um, no," he says. "But I have something to talk to you about." Uh oh. That is not what I wanted to hear. Knowing my husband, who likes to have deep reality-facing heart-to-hearts in the middle of the night, this could be anything. "The hot water heater," he said, "it, um, busted....there was water everywhere. I tried not to wake you up..." WHAT? I tried to panic, but of course had had so much cough syrup that I was unable to muster any sort of excitement over this. I'll worry about it in the morning...which I didn't. I got myself up, took myself to school, and decided not to worry about any of it. We would fix it. There was nothing I could do. THIS is a miracle of God's provision in itself. I am prone to worry about these sorts of things.

So, where was God in all of this you ask?? Here is the crazy part: Had things gone according to MY plan, we never would have realized the hot water heater had busted until sometime tonight when we got home from work. You see, Patrick was asleep on the couch when I was getting ready for bed. Had he stayed asleep, I would have gone downstairs in the basement to take care of the litter box and lock up. BUT he woke up right before I was headed down there and said not to worry he'd take care of it. I probably never would have caught the trickle of water under the hot water heater. He did. He notices these things. Also, had we found it tonight, we would have had to wait who knows how long before fixing it, because it turns out that our plumber's daughter is having a baby tomorrow. But, because we caught it last night and could call this morning, he was able to come over right away and get it taken care of before his big day tomorrow. Finally, we had budgeted around $800 to fix this problem, but our plumber, a family friend, was such a blessing and didn't charge us an arm and a leg AND went with Patrick to get a new one, saving us over $300 bucks. Friends, God is in the details. Even when things seem to be going all wrong, He is working them out and continually blessing. Praise Him for eyes to see His work even through this crazy day!

Oh yeah, and did I mention that my wonderful husband had the opportunity to share what God has done in our marriage and have a spiritual conversation with this man while they worked together to install the new heater? How cool is that!

Today I have learned a whole new meaning to this verse:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ~Romans 8:28

And now I am off to take a very long, HOT shower.