Immeasurably More

Yesterday morning, my dad had a pretty severe heart attack while on a business trip in Amarillo. This morning, we hopped up and hit the road for Amarillo so we could spend a few days with my parents. On the way, we had some car trouble and ended up leaving our van at the Honda dealership in Burleson, renting another van and going ahead with the trip as planned. This is not a complainer post, though. What I want to convey is that in the midst of some difficulty, we have received blessings above and beyond what we could have even thought to pray for.

First of all, my dad drove to Amarillo by himself and stayed in a hotel room by himself, but he had his heart attack in the lobby of the hotel, where someone was immediately able to start CPR on him, which certainly saved his life.

For us, this happened at a time when our schedules were relatively free of any pressing matters, which made it easy for us to come, and also gave us an opportunity to stop by my parents house to pick up a few things for them.

While we were at their house, the trash truck came, which allowed us to take their garbage cans back to the house so they don't remain at the street while my parents are away.

When our engine light started flashing and we realized there was a pretty serious problem with the van, we pulled off the freeway to try to look up a nearby mechanic. That exit dumped us right at the entrance to the Honda dealership, so we pulled right on in to the service center.

Once inside the building, we realized we were actually at "Honda Wonderland." There was a top-notch playroom, a spacious waiting area, a complete Starbucksesque coffee bar, and a gift shop. And as if that wasn't enough, they were having a special event on site, and they had bouncy houses set up and were dishing up free hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and bottled water. Our kids thought we were on a special vacation!

When the diagnostics were done on the van and we knew we would have to leave it, we started looking around for a rental vehicle that could accommodate all of us. There were none to be found. Then, randomly another person working at the dealership mentioned that someone had just turned in a mini van. It was reserved for us, and someone from Enterprise was sent to pick us up. I went to the car rental place, which was only about 3 miles away and very easy to get to, while Jeff stayed at the carnival dealership with the kids.

I arrived at the rental place at 11:50 and discovered they closed for the day at 12. I also found out that the only reason there was a van available was that someone had cancelled their reservation at the last minute. Finally, the contract allowed for both Jeff and I to be drivers, rather than just me, like we thought it would be.

We were able to get everything transferred from our van to the rental and be on our way fairly quickly. And then, 3 out of the 4 children fell asleep. The other one followed suit a little later. And even when they were awake, they were very well-behaved, even without a DVD player to keep them entertained.

We arrived in Amarillo just a couple of hours later than originally expected, and we got a room at a hotel less than a mile from the hospital, with an indoor pool.

"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...  for ever and ever! Amen." (Eph. 3:20)

Truly, "His strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9).