Sanctuary

“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever will be.”

OK, so this morning did not start out so well.

Our van had a “low tire pressure” light, starting yesterday. This had also happened another time recently, and it was just due to temperature fluctuations, so we didn’t worry. The tires are only a couple of months old, so we were fairly confident that whatever the problem was, it could wait for a visit to the mechanic on Monday. Also, one of the headlights on the van was burned out, and for some reason that indicator light did NOT come on. We were thinking maybe the indicator light system might have some flaws. Anyway, R.J. replaced both headlights and we thought our troubles were taken care of. That was yesterday. Now back to this morning.

We backed out of the garage and started down the hill on our way to the 8:30 service at church. We didn’t get too far before the car became very noisy. It took us a block or so to figure out what the noise might be. As soon as it was safe, we pulled over to discover that, sure enough, our back, driver’s side tire was flat. We “limped” back home to begin the process of changing the tire and figuring out how we were going to get to church. (Yes, there are consequences to having only one car....)

Changing a tire in a single car garage can be challenging, especially when the drain in the floor of said garage is not working, so there is a lake on one side of the car. This was the first time to change

the tire on this vehicle, so we had to bring out the owner’s manual to figure out exactly where the spare tire was located. The start of the process was a bit slow, but things proceeded on course. R.J. had the bad tire removed and was just jacking the car up a bit more to get that spare in place. At the same time, I was inside the car, cranking the mechanism to pull the spare tire assembly back into the place where it is stored, under the car. Just then, the car lurched and went crunch. My first reaction was to think it had fallen on R.J. Thankfully, that was not the case. However, the jack had gone through the undercarriage of the car in an unseen rusty spot.  Boom. A relatively straightforward process had just become complicated.

Fortunately, we had a backup plan for getting to church by the beginning of second service. It is important to us to be there every Sunday, but this week had a special urgency because it was the first week of a Sunday school class that R.J. was teaching. A dear friend had seen my Facebook plea for a ride and answered that she would be in our neighborhood picking up her son and could swing past our house and pick us up. This was good news, since the state of the car at this point seemed to be working against us getting it fixed in a timely manner. After some discussion (and let’s be honest, nobody’s discussion skills are at their best during a situation like this), we found a cement block to prop the car on while R.J. let the jack back down. Once the weight of the car was off it, we hoped the jack could be removed from hole it had punched in the car. It was not that simple. A considerable amount of small, rusty pieces of car now rest on the floor of the garage, after we wiggled and jostled and firmly yanked on that jack. It’s pretty happy where it is. And our van is just sitting on three tires and a landscaping brick while we figure out what to do next.

It was at this point that we temporarily abandoned our efforts to get the tire changed, and instead got ready for our ride to church. We arrived at church, took off our coats, and entered the sanctuary during the first song. That word “sanctuary” rang true for us today. It was a safe place to refocus and rest in the arms of our Savior. The songs we sang seemed especially soothing and reassuring for us, and they really helped us focus on what was important. The last hymn was “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and the words were a balm to us.

“Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided;
great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

Tears formed in my eyes and a lump formed in my throat as I heard many voices join together to raise this song of praise to our Heavenly Father. It would have been so easy to fall prey to some “stinkin’ thinkin’” this morning. There, in the sanctuary of our church, in the middle of our community of believers, we were at home and at peace. We were renewed and refreshed by the music. We were enlightened and encouraged by the message. We were equipped to respond to the challenges of the day.  God met us where we were, empty and discouraged, and used this body of believers to replenish and restore us. 

R.J.’s class was well-attended and the message he had on the topic of apologetics was well-received. We were thankful to be able to get where we needed to be today. As for the car, well, at present it still sits on three tires and a landscaping brick, and it still has a jack hanging from it. You might need to tune in tomorrow to see how this one ends! Faith is not a magic wand that solves our problems but rather an abiding Presence who stands by us, whatever comes our way.