Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
The damage to our roof seemed minor when I compared one smashed corner and a mangled gutter and drainpipe to the holes many neighbors had suffered. The insurance adjustor settled the cost to repair our battered west end with $1200. I did notice, however, when the first roofer I called to give me an estimate said, “Lady (why do all repairmen call me ‘lady’? How do they know? Maybe I am; maybe I’m not), you got three roofing surfaces up there. I don’t know if we can really fix it up. Regulations don’t allow more than two.”
I can’t remember, but we might have been the ones responsible—in fact, I’m sure we were. We’ve lived in this house for the last 35 years, buying the property when it was three years old. I can recall one roof surface overlaying the original, but I don’t have any memory of the second surface being pounded one upon another upon another.
We were almost ready to sign the contract for the $1200 roof repair, when one of those “storm-chasers” appeared at our door and wondered what kind of damage had been done above our heads. “Not much,” I replied, and pulled out the adjustor’s figures for some $7000 of various repairs, the corner of the bashed roof and the damaged drains being part of that total.
“Why don’t you let me get my guys up there and let’s see if any of the roof structure has been damaged?”
I was ready to move ahead with the first roofer, but David, being a little more forth-seeing, insisted we proceed with the stranger who appeared without warning at our front door. The storm hit us on the final days of June 2012; it is now the middle of December. Last week, after long negotiations to which the Mains had no part, the roofing company announced that our claim for a whole new roof (well, almost a whole new roof) had been approved. Two days ago the check came in the mail, as well as one of those detailed adjustor’s reports that read like Greek to the uninitiated construction-challenged homeowner. Today I drove 15 miles away to get the check endorsed by our primary mortgage-holder, then to the bank that holds our line of credit loan, then to deposit it in my own bank. Done!
Going past the house on my way to the office, I noticed that big piles of stacked roofing had been left in the driveway. The check should clear in three days, but work will begin today because we have two days of decent December weather forecasted—talk about cutting it thin.
“Well, that’s all done,” I said to my husband in relief. It seemed as though each endorsement required several phone calls for permission, record examinations, and each bank has its own particular set of rules that must be followed. “Karen,” he called. “Come into my office.”
It seems my visit to the bank that holds our mortgage had prompted a phone call from a mortgage officer. Due to the way our salary payments are structured and some other tangled legalities, we have not been able to refinance our home. At least four times, my husband has responded to the national campaigns that promise mortgage financing relief—all of them have said we can’t refinance. David explained this to the man on the other end of the line. “My goodness, none of that should be a problem. You have never missed a payment. I have your record in front of me. At 3% interest, you could save all
kinds of money.” It appears that if we refinance for a 15-year mortgage at 3%, we will pay exactly what we are paying now, but save ourselves $112,000.
Not bad for a morning spent traveling from bank to bank in order to get the appropriate endorsement on the back of our insurance checks.
If this actually goes through—and I’ll let you know—we will have a new roof (that almost wasn’t) totally unexpected, as well as refinancing on our home mortgage—again, another huge gift, totally unexpected. I see God’s hand in the myriad little gifts of my days, but I am trying to open my mind and my heart to the possibility that my Heavenly Father may be wanting to delight us through bigger venues of his love, venues we can’t see, or even fathom with our limited imaginations, but real, nevertheless.
This certainly was an amazing morning. Merry Christmas!
I spy God!
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