No, really, a real chapter. Chapter 8 in Jill Savage's My Heart's at Home is about home being a museum. She talks about a coke bottle box that hangs on her wall and has things in it that remind her and her family of how God works in their lives. It has a piece of a drape that was given to them (the whole drape, actually a whole set, but only a piece is in the box) when her husband was out of work. They were brand new and expensive. God provides for our needs and, sometimes, our wants. A communion cup from when her husband's new church plant didn't have a communion set and a church donated one to them. They'd been praying for that because the new church couldn't afford one. There's also a little car in there because God connected them with someone who was selling a car for a low price when they really needed on badly. They also have some frames around it that tell of their son Kolya's adoption story, and it is pretty amazing.
So, I really like this idea. I tried to think of ideas to put in our box, but came up empty handed. I know that God has worked through our lives a lot, but to think of items that show that can be kinda hard, so I turned to my husband who quickly came up with one. The Mazda Protege that he used to drive. While, I don't think that they make a little matchbox car like that, I'm sure we could find a little gold car to go in the box. Here's the God story that it tells:
When we were first married and living at the seminary, we had my little white car and David's little gold car. David's car was still being paid for. $212 a month that we couldn't afford. Really there wasn't much that we could afford on my small wages cleaning houses and the little bits of work that David tried to fit in while getting his degree. In our first year of marriage, we paid off that car. Three years early. If you would have added up the money coming in and the money going out, I'm sure that the numbers would not have jived that year, but somehow we got through that first year just fine, more than just fine. Through a series of misfortunes that happened to bring us money (like my car getting totaled due to a hail storm), a secret beneficiary, odd jobs that our landlord would come up with out of the blue, and many more weird things like that, we not only made it through that year, we made it through all three years that he had left at the seminary when we got married coming out better than we arrived, and with no new debt. God's pretty awesome!
After that I came up with one that can be represented with a tiny blood pressure cuff. It tells of the remarkable story that ends with me being alive and well and having a healthy baby girl. I started having symptoms of Preeclampsia at 22 weeks. My doctor didn't put my symptoms together to figure out that something was the matter and declared me healthy enough for a 20 hour move that I drove the whole way. By the end of all the packing and repacking and driving, I was more swollen than I've ever seen anyone. I felt pressure to have the house in order by the time lots of people arrived for David's ordination and installation in his first church, so I unpacked the house while David unpacked his office across the street. He and my mom helped a lot in the kitchen because by that time, they could see how sick I was. On our 12th day at our new house, I knew something was the matter. A sinus infection. Of course. After many calls to both my old and new doctors, I finally wound up with an appointment to see my new OBGYN that day, but only due to a cancellation. I never made it to the examination room. She took me straight to her office as soon as she heard my BP. Less than 24 hours later, I had a baby girl. Normally, delivering fixes the problem and PE goes away quickly. Not in my case. It took 8 weeks for my kidneys to start functioning (one had all but quit and the other wasn't doing well) and my blood pressure to get to a normal range without medicine. At times it wasn't even at a normal range with medicine, so that was a big deal.
So so far two amazing stories. One about God providing for our financial needs and one our physical needs. A couple more, and we'll have a box! I've already thought of one, but I'm not ready to share that story in the box yet. It seems kinda silly since I'm living in it.
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