I received a message...

Last night a higher being, (my belief is that it was God since I'm catholic), sent me a message.

It came from an unlikely source. I have no doubt that the message was for my benefit, but I also believe it was meant to heal the teller as well.

About 8 months ago, we purchased our very first "new" old house. In the months to follow, our house revealed to us it's many imperfections. We began to create a priority list because first of all we don't have a bagful of money lying around, and secondly, repairs must be made in a systematic, planned order so that you don't end up undoing and reworking improvements already made and paid for.

At the top of the list was a total re-do of the HVAC system. Last week, after it was done, we started to have interruption in our electrical service. It was COLD out, and convinced it was something the HVAC contractor could have done, I called them first to start ruling out the source of the problem. They came, checked the voltage going into their units and found it was only 120 volts. They then backtracked and checked the power company's meter coming into the house and found instead of delivering 240 volts, it was only delivering 120 volts. Having found the source of the problem, we called the power company. The service report read "Replaced Lug in Meter ~ D4 Burn Catastrophic Failure." All I could think of was "I wonder how much longer it would have been before our house would have burned down."

When the electrician, whom the power company called to come and replace the lug arrived, his wife had accompanied him on this dark night and was sitting in his company truck. As the boys gathered around the meter shooting the you know what, I wandered over and started visiting with her. I started complaining about this money pit of a house we'd bought. She shared that she and her husband had bought a home many years ago with many acres of land. It was a "repo" and they'd made a good deal. But the early days brought many problems for them too, the first of which was discovering that someone had come and tore all the copper water piping from under the house to sell as scrap metal. Then the heat system went. One company came out to give them a quote to replace it. Then another company came out to give them a quote and discovered the unit was missing. It had been stolen by the workers of the first company who'd been there to sell it as scrap. Thinking there was a happy ending to this story, I asked the lady if now, after all that time and the home improvements they'd made to their house, she loved her house. She looked at me and said "All I keep thinking is that if we had never moved there that my son would still be alive."

She proceeded to share the whole heart-wrenching story of one Sunday, seven years ago, when police officers came to her door and informed her that her son was dead. Not only was her son dead, but investigation ruled that the incident was a murder-suicide, her son having been responsible for his girlfriend's death as well. I will not go into further detail to protect this family's privacy. But after she was done with the re-telling, she looked at me and said I feel like we're both still sleeping, that I am living a nightmare and you are in my dream.

I think God put me in that lady's path, for the re-telling of her story and sharing her continuing grief with a stranger. I also think he put her in my path to tell me that our problems with our "money pit" are no more than a grain of sand in the whole grand scheme of his plan for us. God sent me a message to place at the very top of our priority list ~ Trust in him each and every day and be thankful for his intervention in keeping us in his care.

Warm winter blessings to you all.