A Good Word

My Lemonade Coat

Part 2

By Carol J. Ahola

We barely pulled off the freeway when a tow truck stopped behind us. The driver, heading for one of the many cars that had slid on the ice that night, assured us that he would call another tow truck to our rescue.

“I’m sorry,” Milt apologized as he reached for a blanket in the backseat. “I guess it wasn’t the battery.”

“That’s OK, Honey,” I replied, amazed by the grace God was giving me. “You did what you could.” Wrapped in the blanket, the two of us waited in the car alongside the icy freeway. Then I realized that this was exactly what I had seen when I fussed to the Lord about our trip! What I had thought was my imagination was actually God sending that visual aid, along with His clear command to stop complaining. In the vision, we had simply been sitting, without our daughter, waiting alongside the road. Only the darkness was different. In my picture we sat surrounded by daylight. Then I remembered, “Darkness is as light to you” (Psalm 139:12, NIV).

God had known what was going to happen and He didn’t want me to fear. His promise to “never leave me or forsake me” included this.

Milt and I rejoiced in frosty sentences, thanking God for His protection and provision through the day. Soon we were perched in the toasty cab of the tow truck and called Jerry. As the tow truck pulled our car through one entrance of Park-and-Ride, Jerry, with perfect timing, drove through the other. How good to be only a few minutes from a hot meal, a steamy bath and warm bed. The men would fix the car in the morning.

As I climbed into Jerry’s vehicle, I slipped off my shoes and tucked my toes under the heater. My cold bones hurt more than my empty stomach. “I’d like to defrost in a hot bath before we eat,” I told Jerry.

“I’m sorry,” our host replied, “but our electricity has been out for a day and a half, and we don’t have any hot water. Our phone’s been out all day, too. I don’t know how your phone calls came through.”

Soon we were cuddled close to the wood stove while Mary served us steaming soup by candlelight.

“I don’t think anything has ever tasted this good,” I purred. My gratitude continued as we snuggled under a pile of homemade quilts, grateful to be off the ice.

With no lights, no heat and no hot water, there was only one solution for Mary and me the next morning—head to the mall! The men dropped us off on their way to replace our car’s jiggled-to-death alternator.

“Where shall we go first?” Mary asked as we entered the gloriously warm mall.

“I’d love to use my ‘coat coupon,’” I answered. “I’ve really needed one.”

I saw it as soon as we walked into the store. Holding my breath, I lifted the coat from the sale rack: long and full, the forest green coat came complete with fur-trimmed hood. Enchanted, I twirled before the mirror.

“What a beautiful present,” Mary said.

Yes, the coat is a gift from my loving husband, but I know it is also from my heavenly Father. Just as He had promised in my vision, I did not starve to death and I did not freeze to death. Even more amazing, He had given me His grace to not complain. To underline this lesson on patient endurance, He chose a luxurious coat. Whenever I wrap in its warm wool, I remember this truth: I can trust God, no matter how difficult the day. He who turned water into wine will have no trouble making lemonade out of life’s lemons.