Almost New

Ever had hand-me-down clothes? Bought a previously-owned car? I have often been blessed by someone else's cast-off stuff. Recently, I have once again had the opportunity to be very thankful for something second-hand. When you have an emergency home repair, but not the $500 to do it with, you tend to get a little desperate. We were in that situation with our hot water heater, and God--using some wonderful people from our church--sent over a practically new one to replace ours.

Now, if you know us, you realize we almost always have to settle for "almost new." I discovered long ago that this is because my husband is so very gifted at fixing stuff that he is God's private recycling center. God sends us some old piece of junk; Handy Hubby repairs it, then tweaks it, then cleans and shines it up. Voila! Good as "almost new."

It took several hours this evening of some serious fixing, tweaking, cleaning, and shining up to get that hot water heater ready to be installed. Have you ever imagined what it takes to refurbish a water heater? I had no idea--although I confess I usually don't. My miracle man spent ages getting all the stinky sediment out of that thing--and this was after hours of fighting with fittings which refused to remove themselves. At this end of all this labor, he looked down into the tank with a flashlight only to discover a big rusty spot in the bottom of it. This means that the tank could rust out at any time, leaving our lower level flooded with 40 gallons of hot water and making carnage of the flooring, drywall, furniture and toys which reside in our family room.

Our dilemma: to install or not to install this thing. In discussing our options (getting a brand new water heat is not one), we asked two main questions. First, would this much newer tank be better, at least temporarily, than the one we have now? Our old heater has been resurrected repeatedly recently by the aforementioned handyman. With it, too, we risk re-experiencing the flood without the benefit of an ark. Second, would God really give us such a great gift--which He, of course, knew would cost so much in frustration, time and effort even if it were free in dollars and cents--and not allow it to be usable? In all the times I've watched my sweetheart sweat it out to repair some one's stuff, it has never--really, never--turned out at the end to be a wasted effort.

So, tomorrow after church (where I will praise God once again for His provision--and pray fervently He won't allow it to become a burden) in will go our "almost new" hot water tank. And the next time His plan seems less than perfect--like a surprise pregnancy?--perhaps I'll be better prepared to praise Him anyway, and plunge ahead in pure faith.