Our Twenty-second 4th Day

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

God is Good! Indeed!

I was off from work today. I had planned on cutting the grass and doing some work around the house. I decided to grab lunch at Chipotles (I have a real weakness for their burritos) and had just left to go home to get to cutting the grass when my phone rang. It was my daughter. She was going to Mt. Airy when her car started smoking and making noise. It turned out that the bearings to an idler pulley seized and shredded the serpentine belt, melting the belt and pulley. (For those of you that are not autophiles (car lovers, not self-lovers), that basically means she couldn't drive much farther.)

The problem was compounded by the fact that she drives a Saab--not your common car to get parts for from Pep Boys. Well, the belt was easy enough to get, but the pulley was another thing. We went to three parts stores that said they could have the part tomorrow afternoon, but not today. I was looking at towing the car back to Frederick, figuring out some way my daughter would get to work, fixing the car in the dark, etc. Not a very hopeful (or cheap) outlook.

Well, to make a long story a little shorter, I went back to the first shop after removing the damaged parts and found an acceptable (if not perfect) replacement for the pulley, and proceeded to repair the car. It still took a couple of hours to get the belt on (the serpentine belt for a 2000 Saab 9-5 is over 103" long!), but at least I spent time this afternoon with my daughter. Some of her friends showed up and I met them, too. They are heavily into body art (a.k.a., tattoos), but that's ok because they are nice people. It also gave me the chance to be a hero to my daughter. Are you starting to get the picture. God puts us where he wants us to be and provides us the opportunity to do good work.

God is good to us. He gives us an abundant life. He gave me time with my daughter and an opportunity to show acceptance to my daughter's friends. I hope I behaved as Christ would have me behave. You see, her friends aren't the business suit crowd. When the pulley went on and fit like a glove, I said "God is good." Someone asked what I said and I repeated it. That's all.

God is good because He held her car together until I had a day off, He led me to find the right part, and He gave me a dry, clean ground to work on. What more could I have asked for? Take advantage of the opportunities that God puts before you. The grass will be there tomorrow; it's not going anywhere.

De Colores,
Bill