I recently heard our Associate Pastor Mike Bidell in a sermon tell this heart warming story. It's a story of God's faithfulness and provision. It's also a story of how God can use a child to inspire our faith. I hope you enjoy it. I asked Mike to share it with you. Pastor Dave
Ever had vehicle problems?
Sometimes it seems that everything can go wrong at once. A few weeks ago the older of our two cars started giving me trouble. Not a week later the second car came down with something. Ironically, for a while the older car that had lost all gears but first and could only scream along at about 30km/h became "the good car" because it, at least, started. Thankfully, the truly better of our cars was able to be repaired, while we had to come to terms with the fact that the odometer on the other had probably added its last digit and was pretty much ready for car heaven.
The challenge we now faced was the fact that as reliable as our one car again was, we did not all fit in it (us 4 plus our 2 international students). This made for quite the adventure when having to cart all of us along somewhere; multiple trips, leave extra early, drop some off then pick the others up, back and forth back and forth...you get the picture.
No one ever seems to grow up dreaming of owning a mini-van, but almost every family these days seems to find themselves in one. We began to prepare ourselves for the transition to mini-van-hood. We started doing our homework, trying to determine our best options and what kind of prices might work best for us. It certain situations I can tend to take my time to make a well thought out decision. It took me more than seven months to buy a car the last time I did. Unfortunately we did not have the same luxury of time nor the extra disposable income like I had when I bought that car years ago as a single guy. We did our best not to get too stressed or anxious, but to be perfectly honest it was difficult not to allow questions and concerns in the back of our minds get stirred up especially as time passed and we had still not found the right van that met our needs and was priced in a way that worked for us.
Laura and I have committed to always believing God, always honouring him first and always putting our trust in his faithfulness, goodness and generosity as a Father. It seems it's when times are tough or tight that we come face to face with where our values, trust and commitments truly are. And it seems that in times like this God can catch our attention in the most surprising ways.
One very average day, Laura and I were out running errands with the boys in tow. Out of the blue, Linden, our two year old, blurted out: "Jesus got a van". Laura and I looked at each other somewhat perplexed, wondering where he got this notion from being that we hadn't been talking about a van nor Jesus recently. We chuckled and carried on. I couldn't shake what he said though. Having recently been at a conference that emphasized the profound ability children have to hear the voice of God, I couldn't help but wonder if Linden had possibly heard from Heaven. When I was putting him to bed that night I asked him about what he had said earlier in the day.
"Linden, you said 'Jesus got a van' today. Does he have a van?"
"YEAH. Jesus got a van"
"Does Jesus have a van for us?"
"Jesus has a van."
As simple as it was to hear it again something inside of me leapt out and grabbed hold of what he was saying. It suddenly clicked: Jesus has a van! And though I didn't know how or when or even exactly what, I knew Jesus had a van for us. We weren't sure how we'd find it or get it, or how much we'd have to pay for it. But we just knew that he had a van in mind for us, and that gave us all the peace we needed to trust. We kept doing our part, and knew God was doing his.
A week to ten days later we received an unexpected call from the Lower Mainland with the callers informing us they wanted to give their mini-van to us. We urged them to take more time to think and pray about it, but they insisted they had heard clearly from God that this was what they needed to do. We suggested we could pay them somehow, or give our vehicle in exchange or perhaps name a future child after them, but no matter how serious or humorous we tried to be they wanted to receive nothing but the joy and blessing of giving.
Jesus has a van and we now have it here in Comox with us and yes, we all fit in it.
What needs are you facing? Do you think Jesus has what you need?
Here are some great scriptures to think about:
Philippians 4.19 "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
Acts 20.35 "remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
Luke 6.38 "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Forever Grateful,
Pastor Mike Bidell
PS. If you would like to hear the sermon 'Jesus Has A Van' you can click on the link.
