“Oh, good!” I said to my husband, “I’m going out to see our statue!” We had just gotten home from church, dinner out, and stopping at our son’s to drop off a birthday bouquet for our daughter-in-law. Greg told us he had delivered our garden statuary we'd bought the day before in our absence. In my haste, I didn’t even put on my shoes, then realized that might not be a good idea when I was halfway across the backyard and had to step gingerly on the prickly grass and thought of stickers.
The statue looked small from here. As I got closer, my mind couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. This wasn’t what I had bought! Where was the standing figure of a winsome little girl in a summer frock, the one that reminded me of my granddaughter? Instead, this was a bare tot holding a giant sea shell with a hole in the middle for a fountain! This was like getting home from the hospital with the wrong baby!
“That’s not our statue!” I called to my husband as I rushed back inside. “He tricked us!” Lots of things were going through my mind, but I could imagine an unscrupulous merchant giving my son the wrong statue when he went to pick it up for us. We had run into Greg at the Herb Fest and told him the man was holding it, and he generously offered to retrieve it for us and put it in his truck. Howard gave him the receipt to claim it and we went on home.
On the phone, Greg explained that this was the one the man said we had bought, and described it as sitting on a table top. I remembered that one; it cost less than ours and had a “sold” sign on it. How could this mistake have been made? Our selection was the only other statue out there, and the one we indicated we wanted. The seller said he would mark it “sold” and we could pick it up later.
To make matters worse, Howard hadn’t kept the receipt, and he didn’t remember the man’s name or business being on there, anyway. We only knew he was out of Oklahoma City. We wouldn’t know who sold it to us until the check cleared and it would be too late to stop payment. I was so outdone, disappointed and angry!
Then I thought about a radio message we’d heard that day on the way to church. The preacher was saying something to the effect that when we want to be the one in control of our lives and what happens to us, not accepting disappointment, but complaining, we are actually hardening our hearts against God--not trusting Him to be the One in control. Did that apply here? He does promise to make all things work for good to those who believe.
Well, Howard actually liked the wrong statuary better, because he could put water through it to make a fountain. And it was more in scale with the one we already had of the little boy. If God is trying to teach me something, that is one thing. I’m sure I’ll know more fully what it is in time. But right now, I sure do miss that little girl!
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