Home for the Holidays, by Thomas Kincaid

Thursday, April 21, 2011

All for the Best

My family was suppose to use this week's vacation from school to go to California for a visit with family and a much needed break.  We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time.  However, over the past few months, my husband's back problems have grown increasingly severe, making it very painful for him to sit or stand for long periods of time.  A couple of week's ago, we realized that my husband would not be able to make the 12 hour car trip to Southern California.  We were all very disappointed, but didn't want him to be miserable or to further debilitate him.  So we called off the trip.

Fast forward to yesterday.  My husband awakened me early in the morning with news that our hot water heater was leaking all over the laundry room floor.  Very shortly, the leak progressed to about one gallon of water a minute.  We called the landlord, who called a plumber.  We bailed water until 1:30 pm., when the plumber finally was able to make it over.  He replaced the water heater and secured the situation. 

Now, here is the miracle that is motivating me to write about this mishap.  The plumber told us that we had narrowly escaped a catastrophe.  If we hadn't been home to catch the leak when we did, we would have come home to a basement that was under water.  There would have been no place for the water to go, but up.  We would have lost a lot of our possessions and our poor landlord would have had an enormous amount of damage to repair.

None of us are mourning our California trip anymore.  Our being forced to stay at home averted a disaster.  I see the hand of the Lord all through this whole situation.  Sometimes when things don't seemingly go our way, we can be very  upset and angry.  However, perhaps we are being protected in ways we cannot see by a kind and loving God who is watching over us.

We can go to California another time.  For now, we are happy and blessed to be at home.

Love,
Elizabeth

4 comments:

Sybil said...

How true it is Elizabeth that we don't often see why things happen. Just before Sarah was addmitted to hopital I had thought of going up to Scotland but somehow or another I just felt that I shoudn't go....imagine if I had... Yes our loving God works in mysterious ways.
Love Sybil xx
Have a truly lovely Easter Weekend.

LunaMoonbeam said...

Oh, thank goodness for tender little mercies!! Way to find the Silver Lining. *hugs*

Myrnie said...

Ugh...been there! Got home from a trip, and hubby went down to the garage to get the luggage, and came back with a stricken look on his face "The hot water heater is gushing like a hose!" It had sprung a leak near the middle of the tank...such a mess! Garage, laundry room, hallway, and bathroom were all flooded. So glad your crisis was averted!

Alexandra said...

A better gift for Easter could not have been had any other way! Easter blessings to you. :)