May the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. Psalm 68:3 (NIV)
The first clue that Psalm 68 might be difficult to follow that day came when Bonnie pinched her finger in a sliding glass door. Shortly after, my sister called to report that her television wasn’t working. That would require a visit to her assisted living.
About noon, we had to run an errand. As we left the house, we noticed our sprinklers were running. Since they normally go off in the early morning, I knew something was amiss but thought we might be able to take care of our errand before I tackled the sprinklers.
“Do you think we should check them before we go?” Bonnie offered.
“It might be smart,” I said. When I checked the controls, I realized this was not a minor problem. I couldn’t turn the sprinklers off. Not being handy, I called our gardener to ask him what to do.
“Find the water cutoff for the system,” he suggested. “I’ll stop by tomorrow to see what needs to be done.”
Since I wasn’t sure where the cutoff valve was, I kept him on the phone as I began to search. Noticing water spraying from one of the control valves, I reached down to tighten the control knob. Swoosh! The top of the valve blew off, sending a geyser of water about ten feet in the air, soaking me and flooding the front yard.
“Give me the phone!” Bonnie shouted. I tossed her the wet phone and went back to the task of finding the sprinkler cutoff.
Unable to find the cutoff, I ran to a neighbor to ask if he knew where I should be looking. He came over and pointed out the valve handle under one of our bushes. The flooding stopped.
Completely drenched, I went into the house to change. As I was slipping out of my shorts, I slipped on the bathroom floor and fell, hyperextending my knee and bruising two toes. After lying on the floor for about five minutes, I pulled myself up, finished changing my clothes, put a brace on my knee, and suggested to Bonnie that we take two cars. We needed to spend some time with the dog we were pet sitting. Afterward, I could go to take care of my sister’s TV.
Everything went well with the dog until we got ready to leave. Bonnie asked me to take the house key off her key ring and leave it on the table for the owner. We left the house and headed for our cars. Since mine was closer, I was able to get started and pull up beside Bonnie as she walked to her car.
“I’m going to stop at the store to pick up an apple pie. I’ll see you at home,” I said. Then sped away.
After driving a few blocks, I pulled to the side of the road to wait for Bonnie. When, after about five minutes she didn’t appear, I started to dial her cell phone but remembered that her phone was dead. Then I realized that I had driven away with her keys. No phone. No car. She had to be going nuts!
I raced back to the house and discovered that she had entered the house through the garage. When I joined her in the kitchen, where she had gone to look for a landline, the look on her face was not the loving expression I am used to. We decided that my sister’s phone could wait until the next day. The apple pie could also wait.
When we arrived back at our place, Bonnie plugged in her phone, only to get a message: battery not charging – moisture in phone. I put the phone in a bowl of rice, knowing that this is one way to dehumidify a cell phone.
Bonnie and I had planned to take a trip the following Wednesday, but my wounded knee and the convergence of so many “inconveniences” made us decide that this might not be the best time to travel. I canceled our reservations.
That evening as we started our evening prayers, I remembered part of the message from our morning devotional: rejoice and be glad before God. This had been a day with seemingly little to rejoice about, but as we talked about the day, Bonnie and I found plenty to be glad about.
Some ice-cold water had taken care of Bonnie’s crunched finger. A neighbor had taken time to help me, and our gardener had committed to repair the sprinklers. My sister’s television problem was something I knew how to fix. The dog that we had been sitting survived our care, and despite my fall, I’d be able to limp through my round of golf on Monday.
With our vacation canceled, Bonnie had taken advantage of an open week to schedule a facial she had promised me as a Father’s Day gift. Normally, it would have taken a week or two to get an appointment, but we got a special blessing when someone canceled and we got in the next afternoon. Most important: Bonnie and I had made it through a difficult day with our faith in each other and our trust in God’s goodness stronger than ever.
That would have been the end of this story had not Karen, the technician at Hand & Stone noticed a spot on my nose that concerned her. Based on her suggestion, I contacted the dermatology department at Kaiser. Miracle upon miracle, I was able to get an appointment for a check-up two days later.
The spot turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma and Mohs surgery will be coming in late August. Maybe those other inconveniences had a purpose.
It is easy to be joyful when everything is going your way. It is times like this that we look to the words of the prophet Habakkuk:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Habakkuk 3:17-18
Despite the inconveniences in your life—BE JOYFUL
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12
Because He Loves Us Press 