I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders.
I will be glad and exult in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:1-2 NASB 1995
Our transmission died a few weeks ago and we are thankful. This is not the thing people are usually thankful for, but for us it is. It was another opportunity for us to see the loving kindness and provision of God. He goes before us and knows the challenges we will face and has already provided the answers to the tests we will face. It was not my initial thought as our transmission failed almost without warning. I remember the days when you had weeks of notice that the transmission was failing instead of hours. This day I heard a noise as I was driving that morning, and it sounded odd. I got home and asked Megan had she heard it when she drove the van previously but she had not. We were supposed to be having dinner with family that night and we were all on our way to meet up. Only a few blocks from our home, we began hearing the whirring noise again. Almost as quickly, I noticed the transmission slipping. We were able to turn off the road we were on and get out of harms way and coast into a school parking lot (after hours) without any real danger.
It wasn't until later that evening that I was able to see the blessings in this situation. Here are some of them:
We were not on a highway or major road during high traffic times.
There was little to no danger to us or anyone else.
We already had family in route so that we weren't stranded at that school parking lot.
We are fortunate enough to have had a second vehicle so we could make our appointments.
We were scheduled to be speaking in Chicago that weekend and left only 2 days later. We could have been halfway to Chicago when the transmission failed.
We had 2 days and the means to make other arrangements for our trip to Chicago.
This is something that doesn't always come naturally to me. If you could have been in my head the first few hours you would know my thoughts were far from gratitude. I controlled my tongue but my heart needed some work. Thankfully the Holy Spirit did some work in me and before long I was able to start listing all the things that went in our favor when they could have been so much worse. To top it off, about a week later, the repair shop reduced the cost of the repair by nearly 1,500 to help us when they learned what we do. Blessings on blessings!
Some photos of our travels over the past few months.
What is it that you are thankful for today? What is it that you saw as tribulation yesterday, that you can see the blessings in today? We are thankful for you. Your partnership and friendship with us is something we thank God for every day.
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