Out of the Ashes

Today started out just another beautiful sunny day in MI.  Neighbors outside grilling, washing cars, and mowing their lawns.  I was doing laundry, and washing dishes.  I put away some clothes in the bedroom and walked back to my kitchen sink and to my surprise I looked out the window and saw a huge ball of fire across the street.  The neighbor had been grilling, and had just walked into his house for a second when some of the grease from the grill dripped onto the leaves below his deck and great balls of fire.  They lost everything.

Why am I telling you this?  Besides the fact you should appreciate what you have, because it could all be gone in a second, there is something else.  Almost two years ago we had a fire.  We had just come home from a hillclimb and Karlie was admitted to hospital.  My husband worked 3rd shift so he went to work.  When he came home in the morning our garage was a pile of ashes.  Thankfully the fire happened when no one was home and thankfully it was just our garage and not our house.  We were also very thankful that because we had just come home from a hillclimb that Matt's bikes were still loaded in the trailer so they didn't burn.  We did however, 

 lose a lot of valuable tools my husband had been collecting since he was a kid and some things that we could never replace.  My husband was quite depressed.  Yes, it was sad to lose all those things, but little did he know I had been praying for him to get a new garage.  The one we had was tiny and he was crammed in it like a sardine.  There was no way we would ever have the money to build a new one.  You should see what we have now.  We went from a tiny little one stall garage to a 960 sq. ft. two stall garage.  We also were able to pay off all our bills and build a deck on the back of the house. 
Sometimes things seem like a disaster, but when something in life goes majorly wrong, you need to stop and look for the blessing.  What have you been praying for, what is it that you want and how is this supposedly bad thing that has happened to you bringing it about.  God doesn't work the same way we do.  That's why he's so cool.  He can bring good out of bad.  Sure we lost a lot, but we gained so much more than we lost, and I'm so glad that God's way is not my way.  His way is so much better.