He's in Control

The snow is beautiful, but confining. The sun was shining brightly, though, so we ventured out of the house around noon. I had put on my tallest boots to wade through the deep snow to the car. We needed to pick up a few things at Walmart. We were amazed at the heights of the drifts against the building; not the scraped piles looming everywhere, but smooth, naturally curving drifts of probably 8 feet in places. The light was so brilliant, it took several minutes for our eyes to adjust to be able to see inside the store.

We were hungry by the time we finished our shopping, so, bundled against the cold, we stopped for a bowl of chili before completing a couple of other errands. “We’ve got a broken water pipe!” Howard announced when we got home. Oh, no! I was beginning to think we had gotten off scot-free as far as damage was concerned. “It’s the outside faucet,” he explained. I put away the groceries and didn’t think much more about it, leaving it to my husband to worry about.

Pretty soon Howard decided to get the other snow-covered car out and fill it with gas. He was at loose ends: the place of business where he works was closed, church had been cancelled--no need to prepare a sermon for tonight. He came in half an hour later, looking breathless and flushed. “The car is stuck,” he said. Evidently he had gone down a side street that hadn’t had much traffic, and when he tried to take off from a stop sign, the car slid onto the side and wouldn’t budge. Calling the roadside assistance service, he said they wouldn’t be there for about 40 minutes. I saw him grab a shovel and take off. He said he was going to try to dig it out before they arrived.

I couldn’t understand why he would want to exert himself, and told him to be careful. He came back an after an hour or so. “Did they get it unstuck?” I asked him. They had come immediately, he said, so he didn’t have to shovel the car out after all and was able to finish his errands.

“Oh,” he said, “We don’t have a broken pipe after all. I saw frozen water on the ground, but it was from letting the faucet drip.” Thank God!

Such a strange day, out of routine, with schools and many businesses closed, and granddaughter’s college classes closed still another day tomorrow. But God had been with us all day, and he would be with us tonight, when the temperature is supposed to be minus 10. There is no fear in the warmth of His love.