Percy

One more thing to be thankful for . . .

I was sitting on the couch one rare afternoon last week, while all three kiddos were napping, pouring out all my worries to God. I try to do this as often as possible because a)it prevents me from freaking out as much as I would otherwise and b)He says to do it (Phil. 4:6, I Pet. 5:7). On this particular day I had transportation worries.

Pretty much since the day I found out I was pregnant with Zekers, I have been praying for God to send us a minivan. After spending time looking at some, we concluded that the only way we would ever own one was for God to just bring a miraculous deal our way. So I prayed and waited in expectation. I was just SURE God would answer this prayer with a resounding "Yes!" After all, doesn't having a 2nd child necessitate owning a fully loaded, brand new minivan?

God answered my prayer, alright - by showing us that our current car had ample room for 2 munchkins. Then we discovered Karis was on the way.

Once again, I prayed for a minivan, thinking "How can God refuse us NOW?" His answer? A great little Ford Explorer with over 150,000 miles on it. Wouldn't you know, the backseat had exactly enough room for 3 carseats - no more, no less. With my tendency to worry, the mileage issue was a faith-stretching experience for me, but "Dora" has never let us down in the 2 years since we've made her acquaintance.

Now, with our fourth coming in the fall, I was tempted to pray once again that God would provide that doggone minivan (although Rachel tried to convince me we could just put the new baby's carseat in the trunk and surround it with groceries to keep it balanced.)

But that afternoon, sitting on the couch, I had to make a critical decision. Would I finally stop asking God for what I thought we needed and just trust Him to provide what He knew was best? For days, I had felt Him asking me "Are you willing to trust me in this, too?" And I finally decided to leave it with Him. I told Him I was through asking for a specific mode of transportation, and would be grateful for whatever He decided to provide. I fully expected He would bring a 30-yr-old beat-up station wagon with no air conditioning and a weird smell, that just happened to fit 4 carseats, sometime around October 10th. But I told Him I would be grateful for whatever He provided, whenever He provided it, because He's already given us WAY more than we deserve. It was a long-overdue moment of surrender.

This is no exaggeration: my prayer was interrupted by my phone ringing. It was Danny, calling to tell me that one of his dad's friends was getting ready to trade in his 2002 GMC Safari and would sell it to us for the trade-in value, which turned out to be about half of the actual value of the van, and within our price range. What's more, the van had just over 55,000 miles on it. And for a little extra fun, it actually has a DVD player!

Several days later, we bought the van. We wanted to pray about it first, rather than just rush into buying it, but every time I tried, it was like God was saying, "Duh! What are you waiting for?!"

I gotta tell ya, "Percy", named by Zekers after a green train, is the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on. I'm not kidding. It's a breeze to get the kids in and out, and I feel like I'm driving around sitting in a living room. Every time I get behind the steering wheel, lines from Field of Dreams dance through my head: "Is this heaven?" "No, it's Percy."

God is good. He's good no matter what, even if He would have given us a six-person bicycle (do those even exist??). But I think that when I forget to trust Him, I will be reminded of His incredible provision every time I open the garage door and see Percy.