Pipe prayers.
A little over a month ago, my dad was downstairs doing some laundry when he noticed that water was coming out of pipes where it shouldn’t, and some bits of toilet paper along with it. He called a plumber, who spent several days checking the pipes downstairs, the kitchen sink, the bathroom, and eventually tearing up the concrete in our basement and driveway and finally telling us that our pipes were ancient, falling apart, filled with sand and tree roots, not up to code, and would need to be replaced. Oh, and it would cost $15,000 to fix it all. A few days later, he changed his estimate to $20,000.
Understandably, this worried my parents, especially my mom. They more or less resigned themselves to having to take out a big loan or refinance the house. Where else would the money come from? It would be okay; we would make it. But God… here was yet another thing, in the unending stream of other things. Always another thing.
I am privileged that money isn’t one of the usual things on my prayer list. But when the pipe problem started, I felt a strong compulsion to pray that God would provide somehow, that my parents wouldn’t have to contort to make ends meet. It wasn’t life or death, and we weren’t about to be thrown out on the street. It was a boring, expensive, inconvenient problem with our pipes. It was nothing to trouble Heaven about. All the same, I felt I should ask and remind my parents to ask, and ask others to pray with us, and see what happened. After all, as He famously said, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and heaven and earth are His.
So I prayed, and my life group prayed, and my friends prayed, and my small group girls at youth group prayed, and the worship team one Wednesday prayed. And nothing seemed to happen. Then, for Mother’s Day, a group of women from the Chinese congregation gave my mom a random love offering. And last week our house insurance sent us a check for $5,000. And today a fat envelope containing the contributions from a number of people from both congregations was placed in my mom’s hand. Altogether, over $13,000 has come to us in the span of three weeks. I wonder if it will ever stop surprising me that God likes to provide through unexpected ways. (See manna on the ground, quail on the wind, and ravens bringing bread and meat morning and evening for examples.)
In the face of such love, I can only echo the words of David: “‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?’” (1 Chronicles 17:16). We are humbled, and we are grateful. We are deeply thankful: for a Heavenly Father who knows what we need before we ask Him, and whose generosity overflows when we ask; and for a church body which builds itself up, supported and held together by each part, every one so necessary. More than ever I see that there is one body, and one Spirit, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).
I end with this: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
