Is it Really that Important?

As the one year anniversary was approaching, I was trying hard to block off my mind that our showroom had burnt to the ground. At the time when it happened I kept telling myself: "It's only a building," "Nobody got hurt." The firemen contained it and "only" four shops were destroyed.


Ten years ago I was the mother of 3 children ages 8, 6, and 4. We had just moved back to California from Idaho with great expectations at a time when the economy was beginning to boom in Northern California to the point that even apartments were more expensive to rent than the beautiful, golf course backyard house we had built in Idaho.


Father's day came that year and we were so broke that my kids bought their Dad a McDonald's burger special for .25 cents apiece. We had lost our cat, the only living creature that was our friend because we didn't know anybody else yet. Our hamster developed a tumor and we held her funeral in the side yard of our apartment complex.


With great sacrifice we leased this shop in Los Gatos, with even greater sacrifice we furnished it with nice displays, decorated, painted, and beautify it. My kids drew little pictures for Dad to tape on his computer, and then our pictures made their way there also. It was an extension of our home, so to speak. We would go visit Daddy to see if anybody was interested on our product and service. We prayed hard, we bonded greatly, but we were having a hard time. Slowly, provision began to pour, we were able to move out of our tiny apartment into a house, and as our kids attended Christian school, I taught Spanish to offset the otherwise impossible tuition.


Fast forward ten years. Kids are 18, 16, and 14. When my husband called me that day I knew some was wrong. First thing out of his mouth was "we are all OK, the showroom burnt down." My heart sank. He had put so many hours there, so many memories gone, and there was love in those walls, in those little pictures my kids had drawn. It wasn't "just" a building. We needed to grieve. From one day to the next my husband had been laid off, no place to go. There were tears when the firemen let us go in to see what was left. Nothing is a good description. All ashes and water damage.

In the rubble we found a dinner plate that had decorated one of our cabinets, a frame with my kids pictures that had been near the computer, and, miraculously, 2 unbroken wine glasses. I believe God was saying that the most important things were intact: His provision (the dinner plate), our children (the framed picture), and His precious blood (the 2 wine glasses) He was still in control of our circumstances.



And so He was, and is.