Sometimes life seems to be a test of faith.
It has been several months since the hailstorm happened. I was on my way to Maryland to see my son and my daughter-in-law. They were expecting their first child to arrive, and I wanted to visit them one more time before that marvelous event occurred.
I knew that there was bad weather coming into the state of Texas. It was heading straight for my home. This wasn’t the first time that they had predicted bad weather for my area, but I had faith in the past that no harm would come to my home.
My faith was tested.
I arrived in Maryland, and I wasn’t too terribly worried until I saw Facebook. There was a woman who had taken a picture of a bowl of golf ball-sized hail and she lived in my subdivision! Gads! I was now terrified! I imagined coming home to a house with windows busted out, shingles scattered like pepper on my lawn, and all sorts of mayhem. (One benefit of being a fiction writer is a very overactive imagination.https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-shattered-vase)
I quickly got on my phone and texted the people who were supposed to watch my animals and asked them to check on my home and animals. They said there had been little to no damage in my area.My neighbor said the same thing. I totally freaked out. Little to no damage? I saw a bowl full of humongous hail that was posted in my subdivision.
As you can probably guess, I had little faith at this time. In fact, I was not only without faith; I was furious at God, I gave him a talking to and did not hold back. My prayers were anything but respectful and honoring to my gracious God.
Looking for a rainbow after the storm
When I got home, there were no shingles on my lawn, nor was a window broken. There was some damage, but it wasn’t life changing. When I got my faith back in line, I realized a few things. First, I have a home which is fourteen years old, and it needs a new roof. Second is that I have an outstanding home insurance company (State Farm) who has always had my back. Third, this would be a new challenge with a learning curve. My sweet agent, Kathy at State Farm, helped me on that journey.
Initially, I checked on my neighborhood Facebook app and hired what I thought was an excellent company. I have no doubt that they are good, but when I checked with Kathy, she gave me a better option.
She suggested I go with Lon Smith Roofing. Once I heard their pitch, I was overjoyed. They were going to give me a Climate flex roof https://www.certainteed.com/residential-roofing/products/landmark-climateflex/at no extra charge. This not only would protect me from further damage because it was impact resistant, but would also give me substantial savings on my insurance premium. Okay now that is a double win!
When I am faithless, how does God respond?
When I thought about how I had first responded to the hailstorm, I was ashamed. I had not had my usual faith where I knew I could calm the storms. I have in the past, through the power of God in prayer, dissipated severe storms, caused a tornado to dwindle to nothing from the expanse of a mile and had my residence protected from weather for all of fourteen years. Yet in this instance, I was faithless,
However, God remained faithful in seeing me through to the other side. He did not abandon me for a minute. If you would like to know more about God’s faithfulness, I invite you to watch the following sermon.https://gatewaypeople.com/series/the-seven-churches-of-revelation?sermon=remember-gods-faithfulness
Stay tuned to see whether I was taken advantage of or taken care of by the roofing company. Now that is a cliff hanger you do NOT want to miss! lol
