It was one of those beautiful Sunday mornings where it feels like the whole world is smiling, and nothing could go wrong. I awoke to donuts on the table from my dear Cory, who knows the way to my heart. And also knows that his chances of getting breakfast on Sunday mornings are slim.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I had joy in my heart as I headed out to get the cows in. What a glorious morning.

What a morning indeed. First the cows (who are extra mischievous when the weather is nice) took one look at me and ran, tails up, to the far corner of the pasture. I followed them there, and after they ran uphill-downhill-all-around-in-circles, I finally got them in. Meanwhile the clock ticked on.

Cory was scheduled to teach Sunday School, so it was crucial that we be on time, but also the cows need to be milked. It was almost time to leave for Sunday school when I finished, so I just told him to go, and we will just come after Sunday school.

Then I went to the van to get something I needed and discovered the battery was completely dead. I tried jumping it, but the good jumper cables were in Cory’s car, on the way to church, and the ones I found were missing a spring in one of the clamps. I’m the daughter of a mechanic and the wife of one, so I very confidently rigged it up in a way I thought would work, but it wouldn’t charge. (Read on for more of my confident mechanical fails.)

Maybe the van was on strike, but the clock was not. In no time flat it was time to leave, so I told Anna Grace to quickly move the car seats and we will just take the truck. She did, and we were almost ready to head out.

And we loaded up in the truck, got to church in time for the service and lived happily ever after.

Just kidding. That was our plan, but not Harrison’s.

Harrison crawls like he’s training for the Speed Crawling Baby Olympics, and outside is his favorite place to be. He apparently slipped out the door when the children went in or out, and headed straight for a mud hole. So here we are, it’s time to leave, and I’ve just discovered Harrison needs ANOTHER bath.

I was looking forward to seeing my friends, and sitting in the bench with my family, hearing brother Philip teach us from the word. The children were looking forward to seeing their friends and the “candy man.”And Cory was sitting alone in our family’s usual spot, hoping we would show up. But it wasn’t to be.

Needless to say we stayed home on Sunday.

As I sat in the chair, rocking my freshly bathed 17 month old, I wondered what God would want me to learn today. What lesson is hidden in my upside down morning?

I concluded that man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps, and decided that since we were stuck at home, we were going to make the best of it.

We had planned to have some friends over for lunch, but everything was ready so I couldn’t really work on that. Our good friends Jason and Joanna from NY were next door, visiting with their parents and family, but we wanted to give them space for family time, so we weren’t going to go there. I remembered that I had 2 gallons of milk at my house that needed to be put in the fridge next door for convenient pickup.

So I loaded up the milk and all the children jumped in the truck, hoping for a glimpse of their friends, the Martin children. Friends from NY are the kind, with whom you feel you must squeeze in every available minute of playtime, because once they head back, you may not see them again for a year.

I stopped the truck and moved the milk into the fridge, and was about to leave again, but a passing train stopped, and in a flash my children had boarded the train and were gone. This might sound like cause for alarm but the engine was a four wheeler, and the cars were barrels with wheels, so I waved and they went on their way.

They spent the morning riding the barrel train and enjoying their friends, and I headed back to my quiet house with Harrison, washed a few dishes/started on some lunch prep.

Then I noticed a message on my phone from Joanna, inviting me to come up to the house where they and Nathan and Amanda, and the children were singing. Nathan’s used to be our next door neighbors, and they are very dear to us. I call Amanda one of my bonus sisters. So it was really special to spend some time singing together with them, too.

Then we went home, hosted our Sunday lunch guests, and had a beautiful Sunday full of fellowship.

I have more questions than answers here. I don’t know what forces were working (for or against us,) that we had such a morning. Sometimes we are sent on a Divine Detour, and we see in retrospect, that God’s plan has spared us from something that we would have encountered, had we followed our plans instead.

Other times, such as this time, there is no apparent answer to why things went the way they did. And yet we say there are no coincidences.

Does Satan throw obstacles in our path to discourage us from going to be with Gods people? If that’s the case, he failed because we ended up being with our dear friends anyway, and we, with our combined total of 16 children, all sat together and sang songs about Jesus. So technically, what started out as a bad morning turned into a special gift. Togetherness with people we love.

Maybe it was intended as a gift? God is a good father and He knows how to give good gifts to His children. We see that every day, as we receive His blessings, and feel His care. This Sunday morning felt like a gift.

Because I didn’t have to try to keep Harrison still and quiet, I got more out of a few minutes of fellowship than I usually do from an hour long service. (If you have ever had a 17 month old, you know exactly what I’m talking about.) Cory came home with high reviews on Brother Philip’s sermon; so I do feel like I missed out, but God filled the space with something else that was edifying.

Some would argue that God would never cause me and my children to need to skip church on a Sunday morning. I don’t know that answer either. But what is church? I think the fellowship I experienced was upbuilding and God-honoring .. and I’m just saying even if He didn’t directly cause the chain of events that caused my delayed morning, He allowed it, and then He blessed my morning anyway.

I love when God does that… you feel like things couldn’t be going any worse, and then suddenly God turns your test into a testimony. It’s like a hug from God the Father, saying “See? I love you! I’m looking out for you!”

I don’t know why I have never shared this here but I had what I call a “God Moment” about 2 years ago and it was one of the most amazing, immediate answers to prayer I have ever had. (I probably haven’t shared it because it reveals another fail of mine that is pretty unacceptable when one was raised by a gifted mechanic, and married to another one. But here you go. Have a snicker at my expense. 😉

It was a Saturday evening in March . I had left my children with my friend/neighbor/babysitter Amanda, and ran to Staunton to grab some groceries. On the way there I noticed a vibrating sound/ feeling, in my van.

I had recently changed the tire on the van so I was immediately suspicious that I had done something wrong. I pulled over, took off the hub cap and sure enough, the lugs were alarmingly loose. At the same time, it registered that the place where I had pulled over was kind of a shady looking neighborhood, so I tightened them to “finger tight,” and then drove to where I would be in a more public, therefore hopefully safer place. I pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned Wendy’s, in plain sight of a busy road.

I tried to jack up the van, but the parking brake was apparently not working, because every time I got the wheel off the ground, it would roll off the jack. I looked around for something to block it with, but there was nothing in this empty parking lot.

I literally said out loud: “Ok, God, this is a little over my head. It’d be really great if you could just send some nice person to help me out here.”

I’ll admit there wasn’t much faith in that prayer. I was just telling God what I wished he would do, not really thinking He would actually do it. But He’s a good, good Father. No sooner than I said those words, I turned to look at the passing traffic, and I saw a very familiar-looking Dodge Durango drive by. No, it isn’t possible, I thought, my parents live an hour from here. But I called Mom, and she said yes, they were in Staunton! By that point they were stopped at a red light, and she could look back and see where I was. They turned around and came to my rescue, and in no time Daddy had me ready to go again.

The reason for the loose lugs, was that I didn’t pay attention to how I took them off, and accidentally put them on backwards. There’s a very specific reason that lug nuts have a rounded side and a flat side. (For anyone else who may not know, they need to be replaced rounded side first.) But OF COURSE you all knew that.

How did God do that? He didn’t just “poof” and they appeared. It did seem a little bit that way at first. But when I learned all the little ways He had orchestrated it all, I was just in awe.

•Remember me making the decision to move by the busy highway? If I hadn’t been there, they would not have driven by me.

•Mom was going to have a birthday the following Monday, but they had something else they needed to do that day, so they decided to celebrate early. Had they celebrated on a different day, obviously they would not have been coming through Staunton on this particular evening.

•They chose to eat supper earlier than usual, because they had something else they needed to do after they got back. This meant heading home at exactly the right time to be my rescuing angels.

•When they left the restaurant, Daddy asked Mom which way she wanted to go, and they decided on a scenic route which brought them right by some scenery that happened to be me.

God, my Heavenly Father knew I was going to need some help, at around 5:30 on a random Saturday, so he lined up my earthly father and had him pass by just as I turned to look at the passing cars for potential help.

After this incident I’m more convinced than ever that God absolutely cares about the little details of our lives. I’m learning to pay attention, and see His hand at work.

So I don’t know why my Sunday morning was such a rat race, but I’m thankful for the way it turned into a gift.

I’m grateful for a God who can make messy things beautiful, because I think our faith grows every time we see Him work in big and in little ways.

And because I’m just a messy thing, waiting for Him to work on me. 🙂