God's Sense of Humor...

If there is any doubt in anyone's mind that God has a sense of humor, let me share this story with you. It's true - it happened to me just this morning, LOL.

Literally last week, Rick and I decided to take a vacation to Florida in February. We haven't taken a vacation in far too long, and we decided that since I have a weeks worth of paid vacation from work that expires on my anniversary date (Feb. 16th, I think), we would do it then. We didn't even tell my sister yet, who LIVES in Florida because it was such a new plan and we were just starting to work on the details. Last night we were chatting, and Rick said that since we're driving down, if anything happens to the van on the way, we'll just have to leave it there, rent a car to come home in and then mail someone a title. Not a big deal - it wouldn't be worth the cost to send a wrecker down there to pick it up to fix it up here (and we only let 1 place work on our vehicles, so it would have to be done up here).

We're also driving to Indianapolis on Saturday to visit my uncle. We'll be gone for the weekend.

We currently have 3 vehicles. My van, Rick's truck, and Rick's Neon. The Neon has been "For Sale" for a while (we don't need 3 vehicles with 2 drivers, and the money would be helpful). Twice now, we've been sure to have it sold, and it didn't end up selling.

Can you guess where this story is going?

On my way to work this morning, my van suddenly overheated (I didn't even know it was running hot until the light kicked on). I was on the highway, passing a semi truck, so by the time I got around the semi, off the highway and into a gas station, my van died. JUST as I was pulling into a parking spot. We're pretty confident that the head gasket is blown and the engine needs to be replaced.

I guess we now know why the Neon didn't sell.

The van has 210,000 miles on it. It's a 98, we've had it for 2 1/2 years now, and we only paid $2500.00 for it. The only other major thing we've had to replace on it is the transmission, which we did about a year and a half ago. And now we'll be replacing an engine, but then we should get another 200,000 miles out of it. Not bad, in my opinion, for a vehicle that runs as well as this does.

Obviously, the engine was going to go. Because it happened so suddenly, I'm confident that it was just time for it to go. It's not as if it was running rough or anything lately, or ever ran even a little hot, so I know that's what happened. It just went.

How wonderful that it went today. It could have happened this weekend, when we were all (me, Rick, the boys, my mom, and my 2 brothers) on our way to Indy. Or, it could have happened next month, when we were on our way to vacation. The point is, it was going to happen. I'm so happy it happened today.

Today Rick isn't busy at work, and I have sick time, so I won't lose pay for not making it in today, and he can leave early to get the van home. Today, my mom was home, and could come pick me up from the gas station where it died and bring me up to Whitehall. Today, I was able to pick up Rick's car and bring it home and he can drive his truck home. Today, we can take the truck to where the van is, hook up a tow strap and pull the van home going 25 mph on the back roads. Today we can put it in the driveway (which is currently clear of ice and snow, even though it's winter in Michigan), and leave it here until the flatbed from our garage comes through to go to the car auction. They can pick it up on their way through, we don't have to pay a tow bill to get it to the garage. We don't have the money to fix it right now (thank you Christmas), but just knowing that we're "ok" until we can fix it is such a relief. I will drive Rick's car, he'll drive his truck and everything will be fine.

Although I was pretty stressed when it happened (understandably), now I can see how lucky we are that it happened now. If only God's sense of humor also included money falling out of the sky in exactly the amount we need to get it fixed - that would be the icing on the cake, lol :)

And yes, I do realize this is a fulfillment of God's promise to take care of his children. But the way it all worked out just makes me feel like God's having a little chuckle up there about how he always has everything under control, even when it doesn't feel like it down here :)

I love that about Him.