Do You Believe in Christmas Miracles?

Well, here is the story of ours. Most Christmas miracles don’t start with a car accident, but ours did. On December 6th a young driver failed to yield the right-of-way when she was making a left turn and hit us – hard enough to make all our air bags go off. It was the first time we had been involved in that bad an accident, and it was frightening. Since there was smoke coming from the front of the van, I thought there might be a fire, so I quickly checked to see of all three children and the dog were ok, then told them to get out of the van as quickly as possible.

We were at a busy intersection and it was a bitter, cold, windy day, so we went inside a nearby Arby’s to stay warm while we waited for the police. The other driver was quite young, nervous, and crying. It was her first accident and she was driving her mother’s fairly new vehicle. Both vehicles had to be towed, she got a ticket, and after almost two hours we were in a rented van and on our way home.

Some start, huh? We felt we already had experienced God’s grace and mercy in that no one even had a scratch. We were tired and shaken, but no one even had whiplash. So, we rejoiced and waited for Dan to come home so we could tell him all about it. When he saw the new van in the garage I jokingly told him I had been Christmas shopping, but he looked at me and just said, “Accident?” That guy just knows me too well.

The other driver’s insurance company was paying for a rental vehicle for us since their driver was at fault, and we waited almost two weeks before hearing that they were going to total our van. They would pay for five more days on the rental, and we had to purchase another vehicle during the week before Christmas! Well, if your week before Christmas is anything like ours, you’ll know that we didn’t have time budgeted in for looking for another van. In addition to that, it seemed to be the snowiest week of the year so the roads were often treacherous.

We’ve bought Chryslers for the last 20 years, but the newer vans are all stow-n-go now and the back seats aren’t very comfortable for our now adult-sized children, so after much prayer and debate we decided to look at other types of vans.

We finally decided on a Honda, and after a lunch break on Saturday, decided to go make an offer on one we had seen. We took it for a test drive and came back ready to purchase it. When we walked in the dealer’s door we were told it had sold while we were out for our drive. We were shocked! The dealer said he’d never had this happen before either. He had nothing else comparable to the one we had chosen, so our very discouraged and disappointed family left, stopped at a couple of other dealers, and went home.

That evening we talked about how this just had to be the Lord. For some reason He was stopping us from purchasing that vehicle. We decided we had to trust Him since we had asked for his guidance and He certainly knew our needs. In my heart I really felt like that was the vehicle we were supposed to purchase, but I, as well as the rest of our family, released it to the Lord.

All car dealers are closed on Sunday so we had another whole day to pray, wait, and trust the Lord to provide for our needs.

We had been reading stories about Christmas miracles and late Sunday night when I went to bed, I told the Lord this would be a great time for one. I even got back up and turned on my cell phone since that was the only number the dealer had.

I’m usually an anxious person, especially when big purchases and lots of money are involved, but this time I had complete peace. I slept well, got up and showered, and began preparations for our Christmas Eve guests. Dan started calling dealers, looking for a vehicle similar to the one we hoped to purchase. No one had any, or else they were closed. Dan was very discouraged. I encouraged him that praying and waiting were part of the process too. I felt we should just pray and celebrate Christmas – unusual for me since we would have to continue to pay for a rental van for another week before we could go the next Saturday to look at vans.

I was having my quiet time, listening to Dan make phone calls in the background, and just trusting the Lord, when my cell phone rang. As I got up I just “knew” in my heart it was the Honda dealer, and it was! The family who bought the van had just called and said they changed their mind. He wanted to know if we were still interested!

So the morning of Christmas Eve we went and bought it, drove it home, and were able to show it to our extended family.

Why did it sell to someone else in the first place, if it really was what the Lord had for us? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that He wants us to trust Him, even when we don’t get what we want, and even when things look impossible. We do know for sure now that it’s the one the Lord had for us. I also feel like we passed a bit of a test in trusting the Lord, and with a 16, 18, and 20 year-old watching, that’s very important.

Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis

Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
http://www.Phyllis-Sather.com

© 2007 Phyllis Sather
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Contact me at: Phyllis@Phyllis-Sather.com