sentient marrow

For the past few days I have been preoccupied with the physical necessities of life, mainly heat and hot water. Two days ago, my husband awoke to the smell of oil and went in the basement to discover that oil from our heater was leaking all over the basement floor. We live in a 112 year old house and while it has many virtues, it’s heater is not one of them. The heater is about 60 years old and has been a great workhorse, but it’s time has come to an end. We are faced with fixing it one more time in the hope to make it through this season or to figure out a way to pay for a whole new system now… but, alas, with a 112 year old house, there are always interesting complications. The kitchen of our house is a shoddy addition that was built over the outside entrance to the basement limiting what kind of replacement can be installed. I’ve spent the past couple days researching various heating and hot water options and exploring how to pay for them.

All that to say… God is good. I went to bed and the title for the day in my devotional was, “balancing the budget”. And, the verse that went with it was:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ” Matthew 6:33

I hadn’t really started praying about our heater situation yet, but God was already speaking to me. Some people would say it was a coincidence that the topic of the day in my book was finances and I might agree if this didn’t happen to me regularly over the span of my lifetime. So, take it or leave it. The prayer included for that day touched on trusting God, sharing a portion of our earnings with God for His glory, and putting God first in all things. I had started to come to the conclusion on my own earlier in the day that I needed to hand this heater situation over to God, but reading my devotional sealed the deal. Since I do the books for our business and for our house, I felt I needed to call a family meeting to discuss what I felt God was telling me.

Our family meeting made me feel more connected to my children and husband than I have felt in a long time. With our children all getting older, we can easily get attached to our various screens and go to our separate rooms with very little communication of true meaning. We actually prayed together as a family i.e. we all said something, instead of just me. We haven’t done that in years, if at all. And, we talked about some very difficult subjects.

The unexpected benefit of our heater breaking is our family coming together in a more meaningful way. Again I say, God is good.