Sometimes as believers, we wonder why God allows a sudden calamity to knock us down, especially if we’re attempting to walk in obedience. And we might get so focused on our circumstances that we fail to recognize God’s hand of mercy and continual blessing throughout the situation.
Back in the early 1980’s when Floyd was still in the United States Air Force, we lived in a double wide mobile home trailer in Valdosta, Georgia. We had converted the trailer into a modular home when we moved it onto our own piece of property and blocked it in. Toby was a preschooler and Jamie was a toddler.
Floyd worked second shift so we always ate dinner very early – right before he left for work. That way, he went to work on a full stomach. Well, one Wednesday afternoon, Floyd prepared to leave for work, and the kids and I prepared to leave for church, so we were finishing up dinner. For some reason that day, we were both going to be leaving about the same time within a few minutes of each other. And in fifteen or twenty minutes, we all would have been out the door.
While we were eating, I heard an unexpected, yet familiar, sound. I said to Floyd, “Do you hear that? It sounds like water is running.” Leaving the kids at the table, we both dashed from the dining room to investigate, following the noise around the corner and into the laundry area. A water pipe had burst and water gushed out of the pipe, flooding the laundry room. Already, the water was two inches deep and flowing toward the kitchen and master bedroom.
Floyd splashed through the laundry room to the shut off valve. The water was spraying out so fast that by the time he managed to get it shut off, his uniform was soaked. I was in a state of shock as I stood there in the water.
That day, Floyd was late for work, and I missed church. I had a horrendous mess to clean up. Yet, we both considered it quite a blessing that that water pipe burst when it did. Twenty minutes later and no one would have been home. We would have come home to a flooded trailer. Likely everything in it would have been destroyed by the water. One good thing about it though – our water bill was a flat $12 per month. So no matter how much water had run before it got shut off, our water bill wouldn’t have gone up. If you look, you will discover that God’s blessings are always there amidst our disasters.