Frustrations and Promises

 

You might remember that our refrigerator died a little over a month ago. It wasn’t very old and was still under warranty (thankfully). We brought in the spare garage fridge and parked it in the living room, grateful that the house came with this spare, or we would be out of luck. For a month now, we’ve been running upstairs and down all day long to carry food to the kitchen for cooking and back to the refrigerator for storing.

            We chose a new fridge and ordered it, and this past Saturday was supposed to be delivery day.

            Except it wasn’t, because the day before, they called to cancel, saying the refrigerator was out of stock nationwide until November.

            They promised to have the appliance manager call us, but he never did. So Sunday afternoon, we went to the store to check on things in person. We talked with the manager who had clearly never heard of us or received any kind of message to call us. He was so nice and helpful, but we were glad we didn’t wait for his call!

            The funny thing was, he couldn’t find anything that showed a November restock date. He actually said the new fridge was on its way and should be delivered on Thursday. You know…today. We were thankful for the plot twist, bought some mums on our way out the door, and skipped merrily home.

            So you see, I knew when Ryan called yesterday and said, “I have some news…” I didn’t want to hear the news. Not even a little bit.

            The manager called again. Turns out November is for real. In a conversation that ran off and on throughout the entire day, Ryan and I decided we did not want to wait until November for a permanent solution. We asked if we could get our second choice fridge instead, and we can…

            …but that means we have to cancel our current order, and what followed was a convoluted mess of paying here to be reimbursed there and canceling this to start that…all of it leaving me hoping we actually end up with a refrigerator in our lifetime, and that it remotely resembles any of the ones we liked, and that we actually get all of the money back we’re supposed to get, and furthermore, that the manager is successful in convincing the store that we ran through way more than was necessary to replace a broken fridge under warranty, resulting in some sort of additional assistance.

            I’ll believe all of it when I see it.

            And somewhere in all of that, I realized I shipped the watercolor prints of our homes to our OLD address.

            And it rained on Ryan’s mowing night.

            We all have those days, don’t we? But even when things go wrong, OH how beautifully God reminds me of His power and presence. That rain that ruined Ryan’s lawn adventures brought the most BEAUTIFUL rainbow! I love rainbows so dearly and haven’t seen one in months. For me, that little gift was the reminder that God keeps His promises and cares for His children. Frustrations like refrigerators delayed in arrival and pictures going to the wrong house are not out of the scope of His ability to use for a good purpose, and I am choosing to believe He will do just that.

            And maybe God is pressing me to believe with genuine faith that He will take care of it all - rather than waiting until I see it to believe it.