December 3, 2024

Hi Friends, 

As Advent gets underway, let’s think together about waiting. But first, let me tell you about my  recent shopping fiasco. 

First, a confession of sorts: I really try to strike a balance in my daily living between consulting  the Lord for things/guidance/etc while using the wisdom, intelligence and drive that he has  given me. I’m currently trying to complete a dining room table for our new house. One of the  things I need to do is to make what is called a “rule joint” (the details of which I won’t bore  you with). The simplest and fastest way to make this joint requires a router. I didn’t have the  type of router I needed, so I prayed and did some research, asking the Lord to guide me.  Since I couldn’t think of anyone who had the tool so that I could borrow it, I decided that I  would go to Home Depot and purchase one, even though it’s not a tool that I would use  regularly (I already have two other, smaller, routers which work fine for most of my projects.). 

So, last Saturday, I went to the nearest Home Depot and purchased a router kit. I’d be lying if  I said that I wasn’t excited about purchasing a new tool. I got it home, unboxed it and began  to read the instructions. In doing so, I discovered that a critical piece was missing. Frustrated,  I decided that I would take the kit back the next morning and exchange it. Thus, on Sunday  morning, I was explaining to a lovely young lady why I needed to return this rather expensive  tool. She was quite understanding and actually enabled me to simply go and get another box  off the shelf — a straight exchange. I asked permission to open the box there to see if the  missing part was in this new kit. Permission was granted and, as I started to pull the unit out  of its box, I got cold feet (I knew how hard it was to get it back into the box after removing it.). 

Thus, I decided to take it home and unbox it in my shop. “Surely, this box will have a  complete kit,” I thought. I’m guessing that you can see where this is going. This box, too, was  missing the critical piece (I even checked to see if I had misunderstood something and was  looking for a piece that wasn’t to be included but I was not in error.)!  

At church on Sunday, I lamented to my friend, Bernie. He said, “I have a router that you can  borrow. I’m pretty sure it meets your required needs. So, on Monday, I took back a second  incomplete kit to Home Depot and got a refund. Then, I picked up the router from Bernie and  made a few adjustments so that it would work with my router table. In the process, I saved  over two hundred dollars!! 

Was God overriding my attempt to spend money that I didn’t need to spend or was this  simply serendipity? I think it was a little of both. It seems to me that God cares about the  details of our lives. He knows I want to be a good steward and he also knows what I don’t  know (in this case, that a friend had the tool and that he would lend it gladly).  

Sometimes, we simply wait for something, like the fulfillment of a promise. Other times, the  waiting corrects our vision and understanding. May God grant you the grace of both types of  waiting this Advent. 

Blessings! 

Doug