3:35 p.m. Today's project was to procure a huge turkey and all of the traditional fixings with virtually no money. I would trust God to show me what to do and where to go; nevertheless, sleep evaded me because of an unpleasant "conversation" with my Heidi last night and the sadness I had that it was not resolved before bedtime. Ephesians 4:26 admonishes us, "Be angry and sin not; do not let the sun go down on your wrath." So when I heard her get up around 5:30, I also went downstairs, and we worked it all out. It was time for tears to dry up for a while! Heidi needed my help to call the Jurupa automated substitute line because she was feeling unwell and didn't have the number.
When I had gone back upstairs to get her the Subfinder number off my cell phone contact list, I saw 2 messages from Kriss sent about midnight. His wife Marisela had gotten into a serious car accident avoiding a raccoon on the road. She hit a guardrail on a dark on-ramp to the south 605, spun around, and the Saturn ran into a pole! The text message continued that she was all right, but the car was smashed. Praise God--a car can be repaired or totalled, depending on what Mercury Insurance decides, but Marisela's life is invaluable. How I thank God for His mercy!
After resting until 7:00, I sent out a prayer request right away on Facebook, and went ahead and posted my daily scripture. I was walking over to the coffee pot to get it perking when I noticed a bluish glow on the stove, no mean feat because I don't put in my contacts until I get dressed later in the morning. (I don't need them to read, study, or putter around in the kitchen).
On closer inspection, I discovered to my mortification that I had left the small simmering burner on at the lowest flame--all night long! Homegrown green beans were the dinner vegetable for our company last night. I took the pot to the dining room table around 6:30 and never turned the burner off! Glory to God, I praise Him that there was nothing flammable anywhere near the stovetop, and even the adjacent saucepan that I generally keep there was barely warm! My first thought in my shock, "The gas fumes could have killed us all!" quickly gave way to "The house could have burned down!" How apropos was Psalm 25:1-2 that I had posted minutes before: "To You, LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You."
We can trust God when our inadvertent actions endanger us, and we can trust God when we are we are sound asleep and totally unaware of danger! WE CAN TRUST THE GOD WHO NEVER SLUMBERS NOR SLEEPS!
Have your kids read the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst? I'm sure there's a copy of it still around the house, a real favorite of my five, and could I ever relate to it today, as I moved from near-death level events to a steady stream of nervewracking failures and frustrations!
At Vons, I found a very large turkey, close to 22 pounds, but shy of the 26 I'd hoped for. Oh well, I'll eat a little less! When I went to get some Eggland's Best eggs, I had to open 5 packages before finding a completely uncracked dozen--very odd, and very time consuming. Otherwise, I used my coupons, got my Turkey Day side dish ingredients, and went home to drop off the groceries.
I called my dad, which would normally be a blessing, to discuss putting together a shoebox for Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child, and the deadline rapidly coming up. Surprisingly, he began to make comments that had me in tears, so Steve took over the phone--it was not a good day for a discussion of how I could accumulate savings on a fixed income, especially since I had just told him that California failed to pay Steve's disability checks this month to the tune of $2,000! I'm sure we'll be back to normal in a day or two, but my eye swelling wouldn't be going down...
Next I got a call from CVS pharmacy, regarding a prescription Steve's neurologist had called in, to say that the insurance would not pay for it. Supposedly, we should have 30 more pills! Uh, we don't!! I called the doctor's office, and she offered to give us samples to tide us over for a month and told us that the mail-order Rx program was a hassle for them, too. Chalk up another project for next week: returning to just getting Steve's numerous meds from the pharmacy, just for safety's sake. It's not like Steve can just up and not take his meds--it's serious stuff that has to stay in his bloodstream! And I assure you, that we are not peddling the pills on the street!
Back at home, Steve and I welcomed in a life insurance agent who, thank you, Lord, uncovered a few of our old policies that had expired, and signed us up for better coverage, promising to look into coverage for me, a nearly 6 year breast cancer survivor. That appointment ended on a positive note, so off I went to pick up Steve's Aricept samples.
Wouldn't you know it? The first song on KSGN-FM 89.7 , as I drove down the street was Mandisa's spectacular song, "He is with you." More tears, but tears of acknowledgement of God's sovereignty this time, and reassurance of His providential working in ALL things.
An hour later, as I pulled into the driveway, Marisela called me, feeling pretty sore, and giving me a blow-by-blow description of her accident, including the way her life flashed before her eyes, and we talked about the Lord's great mercy and dramatic saving of her life. She needed our permission to talk with Mercury insurance also. We ended the call with a prayer of thanksgiving--tears again, but tears of overwhelming gratitude for saving this dear daughter's life!
Christians don't go about pretending that we are illness-, conflict-, poverty-, and suffering-free, far from it. My day today illustrates this! But my God is bigger than my day, once again, and always, to the end of the ages!
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