Our Dream Home!

A Tale of Two Leaks!

As most of you know, Trinetta and I are building our dream home. It’s not a big fancy place. In fact, our dream has been to simplify. To build a smaller house that’s neat and clean and build a large garage with room to do car restoration and art. I must say that it has been a blessed experience. We are about 80% done now and although there have been a few things go wrong, all in all it’s really been fun. God has been there at every turn sending us the right people to not only be honest with us but take a personal interest in helping us do things right. That’s a far cry from the nightmare stories we’ve heard of subcontractors who take your money and run. I could fill a book with the little miracles along the way but I thought I would share a small part of the experience that truly illustrates the providential care of God.

After Jim Mathis had guided us through the major part of our project, we met one of the nicest men along this path- Doug, our plumber. Doug was one of the first to take a real interest in our project and has become a friend and guide. He advised us to install a pex system that uses a network of plastic hoses throughout the home for hot and cold water supply. The plumbing was installed and worked great.

At one point I thought we had finished the framing. (Actually, there were several points at which I thought we had finished the framing but Trinetta kept making improvements in the layout. Eventually the framer thought about just building with Velcro instead of nails.) Anyway, the last change was an area in the kitchen where the electrical and plumbing entered the house. When they pulled out a couple of the boards in this area suddenly water started spraying out everywhere. The carpenter had to turn off the water at the well and only then did he see that the framer had shot a nail through the plastic pex hose. Had Trinetta not wanted this change, we would have sheet rocked over this area and within 6 months we would have had a major water leak in the walls. Thank you Lord.

So that explains one leak. Here’s an even stranger one. As we have moved from house to house with HomeTenders of America, we have had to put a lot of our stuff in storage. One day Trinetta needed to pick up something so she went by the storage center and upon opening the door realized that our storage unit had sprung a leak. But, as only God could arrange things, the leak was directly over a large plastic storage bin that had a bucket in it. Every drop of water was confined to this one bucket! And the bin and bucket were sitting on top of some of our nicest furniture.

Two scriptures have been impressed on my heart this week that pertain to the providential care of God.

The first is one that my dad told me after the big solar eclipse this past Monday. I was talking to him and he said: “son, everywhere I look people are so amazed by this solar eclipse thing. But I am way more amazed at the fact that the bible says that God has counted the stars and given every one of them a name! Now that’s something to be amazed about.” (Psalm 147:4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.) This reminds me of the hugeness of God’s care over the universe.

The second scripture is Luke 12:6,7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. ⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” This reminds me that yes, he does care about our overstuffed chairs.