When God Works

After my husband passed away, people kept asking me, “Is there anything you need?” and “What can I/we, do for you?” While there were a lot of things I needed (and still do), all I asked for, were prayers for discernment. Prayers that my steps and actions would be the right ones, as I walked this new path and dealt with all these things alone.

Then, the roof started giving me problems. I know, most if not all of us have heard the horror stories of people getting ripped off by unscrupulous people claiming to be something they aren’t. We’ve heard of those who offered to do the work only to take money and run or only do part of the job and do it poorly. I was standing, looking at the bucket in my living room determined not to be another victim. I asked only people I trusted for referrals. I was given a name of someone a contractor used. A contractor I knew to be respected and trusted. Calling this person he told me that if I were home, he could come by and take a look. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the man who got out of the truck that pulled into my driveway. While the contractor dressed the part of a business owner, this man was definitely a working man. His manner though quickly put me at ease.

I explained what I was dealing with, he took a ladder from his truck and went up on the roof. He told me the same things that a man from my church had told me a few days earlier. He took measurements of the roof in all directions making notes as he went. Climbing back down his ladder he told me that he would work up an estimate for me and get back with me in a couple of days.

All the while I’m praying “God, please let me make the right choice.”

After a couple of days, I called him. He had tried to get an estimate from his supplier but had not been able to that first day, then got busy and forgot. He promised to get me an estimate and call back the next day.

Then Irma made an appearance. I was keeping up with the storm as best as anyone could with a storm that had no idea where she wanted to pass through. Because of Irma, I was in no hurry to get anything done. Why replace a roof only to have a storm destroy it? Once all threat had passed I called him again. He had been out of town, he had the estimate, but it was at the office, he call me in a bit. The next day I called him again, he was headed to the office, at that moment he was dealing with Charlotte traffic, he would call me.

Weird things go through your mind when you are trying to do something that one, you really didn’t want to have to do to begin with, and two, you’re walking on that foreign ground and trying to find the right footing. I begin to think, well maybe since its a small job, he doesn’t want to do it. maybe, he’s got other jobs more important...that was when I went on a social media sight and asked for recommendations. I received a private message telling me to call a man, and they gave me his number. I called, it turned out to be the father-in-law to the person who had been out. He told me, to let him call his son-in-law. He said that usually when he refers someone it gets done. Within minutes he was calling me. He told me about what it would cost, that it really depended on how much wood needed replacing. He said that he could do it toward the end of the coming week.

My parents live next door to me. I have a small vegetable garden near their house. My dad had been forbidden to harvest anything else for me due to his falling. I went down on Sunday evening and even though I really dislike doing things on Sunday, I cut the okra. I called mom this morning from work to let her know that I had so dad could quit worrying about it. She asked me what we were going to do about my dog when the roofers came. I told her that we’d just leave her in the house and James could let her out for a bathroom break when he came in for lunch.

They came today. Today, was my son’s day off. They began around 8:30 in the morning and were finished before I got home. The job came in two thousand dollars less than what I had feared. They cleaned up everything, there was nothing that even remotely looked like roofing material anywhere. The stuff that used, blended well with what was there.

When God works, there is no doubt.