Years ago, my sister Mary Anne and her husband, Stuart, worked at Latin American Bible Institute in Donna, Texas.  When Christmas time came, she and her husband, their children, a couple of LABI workers, and one of their brothers crowded in the school vehicle and headed for Indiana for the holidays.  They were pulling a trailerful of items loaded down with things that had been purchased in Mexico.

As Mary Anne sat in the back with the four children, she began to smell something.

“Stuart,” she said, “I smell something hot.”

Other people in the vehicle couldn’t smell anything, so Stuart didn’t know what to do.  However, the smell would not go away.  Mary Anne tried again, “Stu, I smell something hot.”

“No, it’s just the area we are going through,” someone disagreed. 

Mary Anne realized that they were not stopping.  Suddenly, she knew what she needed to say.  “We need to go to the bathroom!” she called out emphatically.

Stuart pulled off the highway.  Sure enough, something was hot!  He started to put his hand on the trailer tire and jerked it back.  It was so hot that he could not touch it!

Someone had not greased the wheel bearings in the trailer, causing the tire to lock up!  They needed to get the trailer to Walmart as soon as they could!

The vanload was all tense as they tried to get to Walmart before any more damage was done.  They got off on an exit and could see Walmart, but it was confusing how to get there.  They were all feeling desperate as they would turn this way and that way.  Finally, they thought Walmart was up ahead.  “Praise the Lord!” one of them yelled out.

One of the teachers must not have been convinced that they were out of the woods yet.  Before she thought, she yelled back, “Don’t praise Him yet; we aren’t there yet!”

Mary Anne has laughed about this for a couple of decades..and she has never let her friend live this down!

This is one of the phrases that came to me recently as my daughter discovered mold behind a calendar on her bedroom wall.  She called us in to feel the wall.  It was soft!  When we had a friend examine the wall, his hand went through.  We knew that we had a problem!  A major problem!

The inside walls along the center of our home have been damaged with water and mold!  The weatherization work that made our home more efficient has now helped to trap in water, it seems.  My husband and son crawled under the house and found it wet around the ductwork…trapped under my house ruining “the bones.”  As I write this, the extent of the damage still is not known.

I thought of a post from July on how God supplied the house where I live.  I told how everything came from Him.  Is that still true? 

Until we can remove the insulation and plastic under the house and tear out the walls, we really will not know what all can be salvaged.  But that does not change anything!  Even if I lose the entire house, I say, “The Lord gave, and if He chooses to take away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”

Every good gift has been from Him!  All my blessings are only borrowed.  I praise His name!  I praise Him whether I “make it to Walmart” or not.  He is worthy of my praise! 

You can take all my possessions

All the things that are so dear

All the precious gifts that this old world can hold

But this love I found at Calvary

Far exceeds my fondest dreams

It’s a love that can’t be bought by this world’s gold

Then you ask me why I love Him

Why I choose to walk His way

Why I find His service sweeter everyday

It’s the only life worth living

He has made my world complete

Oh that’s what Jesus means to me

-William Gaither