The 'truck' as it has been coined by all of us, has been a rather fun addition to the family! Fun is a subjective term, however.
I think this is the first day that DS hasn't cried when the truck leaves the garage for fear that it will not come back home! After seeing our Hyundai for so long, and then seeing a blue car (Taurus loaner from the body shop), the lunchbox (the red Aveo rental), Ashlie's car (borrowed it for a day to use for some bigger stuff), and then the lunchbox and the truck at the same time and then the lunchbox gone and just the truck - it's pretty easy to see why he'd think the truck would leave and not come back. But seriously, a crying tizzy? Uber obsess much?! But ah, today, he didn't. Oh, but that's not the little miracle I was thinking of for this post.
So the truck and I have a love/hate thing going on. Let's see, the first time I took it on my own, with the kids, we went to a local joint to get some slushees. We enjoyed our time and hopped back in the truck to find it wouldn't start. After trying a few times, waiting for the gas lines to 'unflood' to no avail, we got out and walked home. Not without forgetting the garage door opener, our only way into our home, ever (that deserves it's own explanation, not for this post!). So we walk a block back to get that, and discover my keyless entry remote actually doesn't work. The small miracle here, was that a few days earlier, when we picked up the truck from it's owner, he wasn't going to be around so he left the keypad code with us so we could grab it whenever. And he made the code a zip-code with two numbers flipped around - thank you God!! I could remember that in the panic of realizing I shut the doors and locked them and left the garage door opener inside. We'd have been stuck outside for a long time, had I not been privy to that code a few days earlier. But still not the little miracle I meant to share.
Yesterday after church we ran to Woodman's to get a few things while DH was at a meeting at church. Used the life-saver keypad to get back in the truck only to find, now the driver's side auto-unlock does not work and I can only pull up one other lock by hand. :) Okay, truck, what do you have against me?!
So today, DH, DS and I are in the truck running some errands in Cross Plains and our last stop before heading home was True Value. DH ran in and we hung back in the truck, giggling over a doggie hanging out the van next to us. DS wanted some music on, so I reach over to turn the key in the ignition to the great invention of accessory mode! It didn't seem to do the trick so as I was turning it back to off, I noticed the key was a bit out of wack, so I went to 'straighten it', not question how a key would manage to not be inline with the ignition slot to begin with (sometimes I'm not that observant right away) and next thing I know, the key head is falling on the seat and yep, the rest of it is still in the ignition!! oh, my word.
Okay, good thing we're at the hardware store, they've got to have something for these types of situations. Can they tape a key together and get a good copy made? Do they even copy car keys? Oh man, DH is really gonna think I'm completely incapable of handling a large vehicle and I'm gonna be cut off from driving it!
So, he gets back in the car and I hold up the head of the key and the rest of his keychain. 'Does the hardware store have something to help us?' I plead. 'Do you have your set of keys?' he pulls at straws. 'Nope.' I laughed. So, we turn the ignition to see if the lodged piece is enough to start the truck. Nope. Okay, well, stick the top back in and try that, and if it starts, don't stop until we get home!! And this, folks, is the little miracle, of the day that I wanted to share. We made it home. And I laugh every time I think about our truck and sticking the top half of the key into it to start it and where day by day, it shows it's age, and day by day, we have a choice to make - get mad because we have an old vehicle and who knows what will go wrong next, where we'll be stuck, what electrical failure will happen next...
OR thank God we have a vehicle that fits us all, lifts us two more feet off the ground than any of us have ever been before in a vehicle we've owned, loses ground but still gets us from A to B and at this point, still gets us there safely and fits the landscaping tools we need for the landscaping job that's keeping us fed this month.
It's a little miracle maybe to some that a broken key in an ignition sidetracked our day for less than three minutes, but it's so big all the same. It's big because of the choices we made surrounding that miracle. We didn't argue. We didn't play the blame game. We didn't get angry. We turned to God to follow his lead and he led us home again. And our day continued on with lunch, [attempted] nap-time, DD coming off the school bus as usual, a walk to the library, dinner on the table, family time after dinner and bedtime routines as usual.
And it was all about a split second choice about which attitude to adopt - half empty or half full? grumpy or cheerful? God's punishing us or God's will? Contempt or Faith? Alive or dead?
In the words of a great author (thank you friend who shared him) Andy Andrews who wrote among others 'The Noticer': "If you are breathing, you are still alive. If you are alive, then you are still here, physically, on this planet. If you are still here, then you have not completed what you were put on earth to do...that means your very purpose has not yet been fulfilled. If your purpose has not yet been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life has not yet been lived..." "If the most important part of your life is ahead of you, then, even during the worst times, one can be assured that there is more laughter ahead, more success to look forward to, more children to teach and help, more friends to touch and influence. There is proof of HOPE...for more."
The only true hope we have is in the message of the gospel, that we have eternal life in Christ so that we can live eternally with Jesus and the glory of God in heaven. This hope, when believed on WITHOUT doubt, frees us to live in Christ daily, to go deeper in our faith, to not be rocked by human tradition and the happenings of the world, but to remain solid on our Rock, the Cornerstone of our foundation. And when we have this Faith and Love built on the hope of the gospel, we can live lives worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to God's glorious might so that we can have great endurance and patience (paraphrased from Colossians chapter 1). Our endurance and patience is uber-growing now but has been a work in significant progress for the last few years; when we decided and then acted on the decision to live head on in that hope.
The faith that springs from this hope brings love, peace, strength, wisdom and pure joy. And these squeeze out most of the room for fear, failure, contempt, discontent, anger, pride, frustration. It's not a perfect fix - you won't get it right 100% of the time (we sure don't), but every time you choose God's glory over your own your path becomes straighter.
All the little choices lead to the big picture.
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