"Snowed" By God's Provision

          The snow began falling Friday night.  The predictions were 10 to 16 inches.  By Saturday morning it fell faster - 16 to 20 inches now predicted.  But by the afternoon the intensity increased and the winds came.  When we got up Sunday morning we found 30 inches of drifting snow.  It turned out to be the all time record for one snowfall in our area.

       It was beautiful but we were snowed in.  I was scheduled for a heart cath on Tuesday and we didn't know how we were ever going to get out.  With my potential problems and Dianne's pacemaker we couldn't use our shovels or our good snow blower.  We had somebody who had promised to come but he wasn't equipped to handle this much snow and we never heard from him at all.  I felt helpless but we did the one thing that we could - we prayed about it.
          Later Sunday morning Dianne looked out front and saw somebody digging  a path up our driveway.  It turned out that it was our neighbor, Tom.  He lives next door with his girlfriend and we didn't know him well enough to ask for his help.  But he was coming to see if we were all right.  I yelled to him and asked if he would be willing to use our snow blower to at least clear enough of our drive to get our car out of the garage and to the street.  He was willing to do that and soon we at least had a way to get to the street, if it didn't drift shut.  I paid him and thanked him for being an answer to prayer.
           On Monday we still needed some of the drifting snow removed as well as what the township plow had dropped at the end of our drive.  And with only half the drive open there was no way we could get our second car out if we had to.  Dianne decided to try and use the snow blower to clear some of it.  I went along with her to help her with instructions.  But it just wasn't working.  It was too much snow for her to handle.           
           But then we saw another neighbor appear with a small Bobcat. Suddenly he was in our drive and was clearing the other half of the drive which included drifts.  When he was done he stopped and we met Doug, a single man who owns a tree service.  He had just moved in and we had never meet him before.  He had brought a Bobcat home to clear his steep drive.  He wouldn't take anything for his work and we reminded him that he, too, was an answer to prayer.
          Two problems remained - getting to our mailbox and getting our second car dug out with a path to our propane tank.  Later that day answer number three appeared.  Our one neighbor has a steep drive which a snow blower and the Bobcat were not able to clear because of the steepness and amount of snow.  But an area contractor showed up with his plow to help them and he also dug out our mailbox enough that the postman could get to it.  Answer number three.
           The worst was taken care of, but a day or two later my son Ken stopped by from work and dug out our second car and a path to the tank.  The Lord took care of it all for us.
          And so, once again we have seen the faithfulness of the Lord in our lives.  I didn't realize at the time how serious my heart problems really were.  If I had tried to do it I probably wouldn't have been here to write this blog today.
         God is good - all the time.