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Sometimes… I am not too quick. 🙂

Jen was relating the story of our recent van troubles, and fixes, to her parents, and I finally realized how God had been working in that.

Now, cut me a little slack. There were reasons why I was oblivious to his working in that particular instance, which I will share near the end of this post… but reasons or not, I am a bit dense.

On Monday night, Feb 14th, we stayed with a new friend named Janet. She is a teacher at the school we sang for on Tuesday morning. She was an amazingly gracious host and great with our kids… everything was great. But we did not get much time together as we arrived late, and had to leave early in the morning for our event. Well, our Wednesday and Thursday that week were still up in the air, so Jen said, “I think we should just come back and stay with Janet.” Sounded great to me if it would work for her. So, we called, and it did.

On Wednesday, we had a typical big list of plans that ended up being whittled down to about a quarter of that by the time we packed all the kids and kid gear into and out of the van. Crazy! But we did have fun at an Apple Store in Tampa, and a decent drive up to Jacksonville area.

But as we left the mall in Tampa, the van started acting funny. Something with the Anti-lock brakes and the traction system. Weird noises, but all seemed ok. Then we stopped for gas, and as we started out again, the noises and effects were even worse. Jen got on the highway, but was quite unsettled, so I said, “Well, let’s just pull off here, and see if there’s any dealerships or something. It’s a pretty major road…”

We found a dealer, and pulled in.

“It’s going to be tomorrow before I can even look at it,” came the short reply. Not the words I wanted to hear… but upon further review, we were cleared to continue to Jacksonville. He seemed to think it was fine.

After a stop near Gainsville, the van began acting up again. This time, we were in luck! Across the street from our restroom stop was a Midas! We pulled in with an ever increasing van problem.

Same answer! Can’t help you today… you should just keep going to Jacksonville.

So, we did. And we made it. All the way to her house. And then it happened.

When we tried to leave for dinner, our van would not go. The traction system activated, and the tires would not move. At all. I eventually figured out a way around it, but I thought in retrospect that it was interesting and cool that the vehicle worked until we arrived at our destination.

Then, as Jen was telling the story again last night, I finally got it.

I spoke of wealth in a previous post… well, Janet has it. In terms of money, she has been blessed with an abundance, and is incredibly generous with that abundance. She bought us dinner, twice. And gave us money for lunch. A king’s lunch. And offered to buy us something on our next trip to the Apple Store! (She is a kind woman indeed!!!)

Well, beyond all that, she offered to pay for our van repair!

God was blessing us, and I was too stunned to even notice it! She had been so generous, I didn’t immediately see our Father working in it!

Sometimes I am not too quick.

Thank you God for Janet. For a couple “No”s along the way, so that you could provide in abundance for us through her. You are so good.

Someday, perhaps I can keep up with you… 🙂