We've been working on adding a fourth bedroom since this past summer. Our growing family demands it. With my eyes on the prize-laden horizon, I looked forward to one more step completed today. It was egress window day. My Love rented a small excavator, arranged through a friend for an experienced contractor to operate the machinery, scheduled the required locators to come to mark underground utility lines and we were off. What fun. We bundled up in our jackets and went to watch the excitement. The kids loved it and were chattery and fidgety as they watched "Mr. Jesse" and his machine munch away at the hard winter soil. It was amazing to see bucket fulls of dirt and rocks and grass sliced out of our yard as simply as cutting butter. I imagined the time it would've taken to dig out the rocky soil by hand and I silently thanked God for the healthy tax return that provided the funds for this impressive machine. After a while, the big kids tired and wandered off to find other treasures in the unusually sunny and warm winter day. It's amazing how exciting our plain backyard can be when it has been unused for months. I sat out and continued watching the digging process with the Littles until around 10:30. Then it was time to return to normal life and it's duties. We went back inside and the excitement of Mr. Jesse's digger was forgotten. Then came the knock at the door, "I've hit a sprinkler line, can you turn off the house water, please?" Turning off the water had no effect. It was the main line from the street that had been hit. The 60-inch deep hole at our house's foundation was slowly filling with water. My Love was not home - not due to return for another half hour and it was Saturday of President's Day weekend. I called the Water Department and left a message on their emergency line while the contractor severed the punctured line so he could angle it out of the hole and away from the house. We gathered tarps to contain as much of the deluge as possible. The Water Department returned my call and said it would be another 20 minutes before they could be there to turn off the water from the main line. Our egress window well was due to be a swimming pool. I texted My Love and he quickly came home to survey the damage helplessly and pace around the yard looking for solutions for the flood. This was NOT part of our plan. We imagined the worst and mentally added up the fines and cost for repair. Our carefully allocated tax return funds seemed to drift away in the tide that was the west side of our house.
The County Water Department truck showed up and turned off the water. Then the news: the county is only responsible for the water lines from the street to the meter. The property owners are responsible for all lines from the meter to the house. This is why there was no spray painted line in our grass indicating the danger of a buried water line. The contractor, My Love, and the County man peered into the abyss, postulated and conjectured, proposed and speculated. Brows furrowed and My Love's shoulders seemed to be a bit more hunched than usual. This was going to be expensive. Holiday weekend plumber, excavation of an old line, installation of a new line. Then it started to rain. Seriously. The sunny warm disappeared and the gloomy clouds covered the sky. The County man left and My Love continued to stare down into the hole. I went inside to call a friend about a plumber, mentally adding up the cost of weekend pay and a hotel. It was then that the Divine shovelfuls began to shower down.
"Come, bring your family and stay in our basement. The kids are gone this weekend and we have extra beds. We just bought steaks and have way too much for just us. We'd love to have you spend a couple nights. It would be great fun."
"Here's a name of a plumber friend of ours...you can drop our name. He'll give you a good deal."
"I went back to the shop and found these supplies. They're just laying around...pipes, fittings....you can have them. The repair is actually rather simple. All you need to do is...."
"Sure, you can use our home. We're gone till April and there's more than enough room for your whole family."
"I could probably do the work for you....is $100 fair?"
"The rental company didn't charge us for the extra time...they went ahead and gave us the excavator at the half day rate"
"The work is done...turn your water back on."
"The rain stopped and the sun came out again. What a beautiful evening."
And so we are humbled again by our hearts of fear. We know He is faithful but our trust is so weak and our faith so small. We plan and scheme to force our expected outcomes, forgetting in the moment that it is often in the flood that He will choose to bless and encourage.
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