Works of God

Well, I have to share the work of God in our situation last weekend. It wasn't our plan, but we do know that God has a reason for everything He allows to happen, so I can rest in that!!

Saturday morning, we got up and packed the van, I pre-paid for our checked baggage online with my debit card to save $5, and ran to the bank and then back to the house to pick up some "ah! forgot this!" items. When I was inside the house, checking for other forgotten items, I asked God to prompt me to remember anything we had forgotten. I actually said, "Lord, if there is anything else in this house that we need, please help me to remember." As we drove to the airport, everything was going so smoothly, traffic was fabulous and we were on target to be 2 hours early. Perfect.

Until, I had this flashback to my pre-paying for the bags. With my wallet. A mad scramble through my purse revealed the alarming evidence (or lack, really, thereof) that I had, indeed, forgotten my wallet with the driver's license I would need to board the plane.

Now, at this point I was just sick. I knew our tickets were the kind that you could change - for $100 plus the difference in fare (!!!!) which would have been substantial considering the deal we got on these tickets. I felt as if I would throw up. But I didn't.

Michael and I were blanking out on how to get the wallet to the airport, but we knew it would be cutting it close - even if we knew of someone who could drive it to Detroit, it still takes slightly longer than 2 hours for us to drive that distance and our flight would most likely have to leave. Plus, who would we call that would make that trip? My parents were in Ohio for grandma's 80th birthday, so that was out. We were drawing a blank - that is a lot to ask someone!!

Michael finally decided to call his boss to see if he knew of anyone traveling downstate in that day - and much to our amazement, he, while talking to Michael, yelled for his kids to get in the car and got ready to make the trip himself. He was taking care of his four children while his wife was at ladies retreat. What a sacrifice! We are so grateful for Matt - and for his willingness to eat up his Saturday for my blunder.

So the next step was to get to the airport and beg for mercy. We were pretty sure that the airline could not allow me to fly, and were were trying to figure out what to do - reschedule the whole family?! How much would that cost? I was feverishly running through each scenario. All sounded bad to me. I was crying. And then, I remembered my prayer before leaving.

I know God is good, that He is always working, that He doesn't forget about us, that His plan is good beyond my imagination. And that I had asked Him to prompt me to remember anything I needed, and that He had not allowed me to remember the wallet. And that was incredibly calming. I was reminding myself out loud that God's plan is best and that everything happens for a reason. But there was still a major hurdle. The money.

We got to the ticket counter and I must have looked quite dejected. I admitted my forgetfulness to the agent, who went to get her manager. This man worked on trying to figure out if we had any ID that would work, and then he started working on options for a different flight plan. I timidly said, "so what is the cost for that?" And he told me he would just change it. For nothing.

I could not believe my ears. I could have hugged him!! God also worked out the cost of our hotel - because of a not-so-good stay in the past, the manager had extended a half-off offer for any future stays, and so we did that - the hotel graciously included a park and fly package in the half off deals, so (drumroll please) we ended up paying maybe $5 for a mistake that could have cost us much more than that.

And Michael was the real hero of the day, with his "it could have been anything, it just happened to be the wallet" attitude and his lack of frustration with me. What a blessing I have in him.

We have been having SUCH FUN with our friends - more later on that - this post has already been long enough for today. I actually started it last week, but by the time I finished writing it all down, I decided not to post it until today. We head back Tuesday afternoon, so plan on hearing from me later this week on all the blessings and encouragement we've had here!!

What has God been doing in your life?? Share! Link! Praise Him with me!

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up..." 1 Thess. 5:11

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