Spring 1990 – Vol.6 – No.1
“In the fullness of time, God …”
Someone has observed that in the timing of our Lord, deliverance is seldom early, but never late. That certainly proved to be true in a small event associated with our move to Mozambique.
Though we wanted to take as little furniture as possible, Julie and I did decide to purchase a sofa/sleeper since it would make good use of the limited living space we expect to have. As we would be using it daily for both bed and sofa, we decided we should get the best quality item we could find within our means. In this purchase esthetic concerns would have to take a back seat to practical durability.
Unfortunately, the best sofa by far was a most unpleasant green, red, yellow, and brown conglomeration. Even I was appalled. But the saleswoman told us we could request the same model in a different fabric if we wished, though it would take six to eight weeks to have it made. At that point we still hadn’t heard from the Mozambique health officials and had no idea whether we would be leaving in a month or still waiting a year from now. So we made an agreement with the dealer that if she would order the custom made sofa, we would take her garish one in the event we left before ours arrived.
No sooner had we ordered the sofa than word came from Mozambique. Within two weeks we were scheduling a workday to load the container so it could be shipped. With some disappointment we arranged delivery of the ugly sofa, but because of rain the workday had to be put off till the following Saturday. So as a matter of convenience we asked the furniture store to postpone their delivery until the following Saturday as well.
To our surprise, on the ensuing Friday afternoon we received a telephone call from our saleswoman. She was flabbergasted. Our sofa had arrived just that afternoon, only hours before we were to begin loading the container and a mere three weeks to the day after she had ordered it! She said she had never had such a rapid response. In fact, comments about her previous experiences had kept me from even praying about the matter as it seemed we would be requesting a “miracle” in regard to a mere sofa.
But to homemakers these things are somewhat more important, and Julie and a sympathetic woman from church had been earnestly praying that God would deliver her from this eyesore. The fact that He did reminded us once again that though God is seldom early, He is never late. But more than that, we are thankful that in His abundant kindness He gives attention to even the small things that touch our lives.