The Miracle of the Microwave

First, my apologies to those of you to whom I owe emails and comments. I've been really crazy busy these last two weeks, and have barely even seen my own kids!! This is really wierd, since I normally can't get away from them. But it's good too-- it means we have been at work making life happen, and it has been good to work.

I don't actually have time to be blogging even now. There are so many things I want to share with you guys that God is doing and I don't even have the time to sit down and write about it at night, so expect a big, condensed mess of a blog soon!

I did want to write this one right now, though, lest the moment pass and the incredulous looks on our faces pass along with it.

My microwave broke today. If you'll remember, my microwave broke on Easter Sunday too. At the time, we just thought it was old and that was that, and were totally upset, because (obviously) the microwave makes life so much easier... fast cooking and next to no dishes.
I didn't have a microwave, growing up, for more than 20 years. So I LOVE having one now. My parents didn't believe in them, and so I was always taught that to do things well one must do them fully--- to include browning potatoes, making bacon, boiling water or milk, and things like that. SO when our microwave broke on Easter, I was very upset that I would have all the additional work to do, but I was still thankful we had had this microwave for so long!! God had indeed provided and I was sure He would provide again.
Sure enough, barely three days later, my Father in Law showed up on the front door with a brand spanking new beautiful microwave! And we were so blessed. I've been making the kids' milk and my leftovers in it ever since.
So today, returning from church, Wayne and I set to work making various foods (he made hummus and I made lentil soup) and we put the kids down. Surprisingly, just as I was getting ready to heat up my lunch for my "lunch break," the microwave just stops working. Bam. Like the last one.
I was crushed!!! My first reaction was to think about all the hard work I was going to have to do, then I thought about how God could have stopped that from happening and wondered why He didn't.
I went in the room where Wayne was reading and asked him why God allowed that to happen. He told me all sorts of things that sound really good but really, really, bugged me..... buddah on the mountain top, yoda comments, like:
"Well, thats because you haven't been doing all your work with KINDNESS, Like God has been talking to you about. You do the chores, but you don't love them like they are an act of service that bless you, you do them like you hate them and they make you miserable but you have to do them." and "Well, maybe God is trying to teach you thankfulness and gratitude for the work He gave you," and things like that. Even though he was probably right, I wanted to punch him in the nether regions, so I got out of the room. I went to our family altar and dropped to my knees, prayed for some time and asked Jesus to show me what He was trying to teach me.
Then, resigned to just suck it up and suffer, I slinked into the kitchen and got to work on the extra dishes.Almost immediately, Wayne came in and asked me how he could cheer me up.
"What do you want me to say?" He asked.
"What I really want is not for you to tell me the hard stuff, but for you to just say to me: "I will make this microwave work in the name of Jesus! Glory Hallelujah!" and for the microwave to spring to life.
He laughed.
"OK," he said, half serious and with a hilarious grin,"as priest over this home I will pray over this microwave for you." He proceeded to lay hands on the microwave and prayed something along the lines of "Lord, if it be your will that this moment for you to make this microwave work, I ask that you do it not to merely restore to us a possession but to teach Barbie a lesson not to blaspheme and to question your nature whenever things don't go her way as is the pattern of her behavior all these years."
I scoffed and made a face as he made the sign of the cross over the microwave, and then reached over to plug it back in.
Amazed, I caught my breath. The microwave beeped to life, and it was as if it hadn't even been broken!! We both looked at it, not in disbelief but just incredulous that through this small, seemingly insignificant miracle, we had both learned a good lesson.
I dropped to my knees on the kitchen floor as Wayne said over his shoulder: "You better get on your knees!" and laughed."The Lord thinks you're a jerk!"
Isn't it amazing how sometimes God has to go to extremes to speak to us about our own sin, because we are that unwilling to hear it???
As I'm writing this, Wayne is over my shoulder going: "No, He loves you, and that's why He gave you your microwave back!"
But the truth is, He is both infinitely merciful and infinitely patient with us. He is so good.