For six months give or take, our family had seriously been looking for another vehicle. My trusty 2001 Dodge Neon had surprised us all and has gotten me through ten years of awesomeness. We knew that eventually we would outgrow this car, but we really wanted to hear God in buying a newer car. Two weekends ago, we were driving up to Rock Hill to see family and on the way David and I both thought (but didn’t say it out loud to either of us) “Hmmm, this car is almost at 150K miles….I wonder if this can be it’s last leg?” We even drove around the dealerships, “just to look.” Then we felt totally called out on the whole thing and we were declaring all of the good things about my car because it is/was a great car. When we would look around for our new car, the timing (and money) never seemed to match up, so we kept patiently waiting. God was telling us “when you need a car, you will get a car.”

Ironically, coming home from Rock Hill, we did get in a wreck. Praise God that everyone was ok. Our girls slept through the whole thing and we had air-conditioning for the whole hour we waited for a ride and the tow-truck! (Later, the technician told us that the car’s AC was not working at all…hooray for supernatural AC in the Columbia heat!). The guy that we hit, who thankfully was ok as well (just some fender damage) was on his way to Ft. Jackson and he stayed with us until help arrived. His fatigues displayed his last name, “Blair.” David’s sister wonderfully gave us a ride to the rental car place and we were so grateful! We were thinking: “Ok God, we guess we REALLY need a car now….so you are going to have to show us one much sooner.”

We got a rental car through insurance to get us home, and my parents generously lent us one of their cars for the past two weeks. Then God creatively stepped in and we received an unexpected inheritance from my recently deceased grandmother that was totally unexpected. I really hope that God was able to tell her before she left to be with him (or else she is hearing about it now) that she was able to bless our family so much with what we had been needing and praying for! So the problem of not having a down payment for the car was solved in less than 48 hours after the accident! Wow, thanks Mimi!! We also had a generous gift given to us from family members to contribute to our future car (little did they know that we would use it in a few weeks) oh wait, it gets better:

So I am depositing that check into our account and I was doubting what it should be used for. I’ve never been given a check that big before and I was contemplating what else it could be used for, or stored up. Then the verse from Matthew 13:44 came to mind: “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found. In his excitement, he buried it again and sold everything he had and bought that field.” Remember how the guy we hit, his name was “Blair”? I looked up what that name means and it means “field”. That was my confirmation that that money was specifically for our car! (cue my happy dance).

We prayed about what kind of car to get and David and I agreed we wanted a newer model. It didn’t have to be “brand new”, just newer than say 2008 (which is the year that VHS tapes officially died, y’all.) I kept hearing “white Honda Odyssey”. There are many Honda Odysseys for sale all over the internet webs, but we were “to wait for the one.” So we kept waiting and frustrating things were happening all around us. We had so much opposition this last week, it was CRAZY. But then we received a call that the 2014 white Honda Odyssey that we looked at online was available for us to look at, at Carmax (which was our first experience with them and it was awe-some!). We knew it was ours when we test-drove it. We named her “Pearl” because this van is a long-awaited treasure for us! (and Miriam thinks the van is a spaceship…)

This car was a huge lesson for us in patiently waiting and stewarding well what we had. It is repayment for things we had previously lost or given up. It is proof that God fights for us and truly wants to give us his best! I was listening to a podcast by Eric Johnson about “Kings Give to Kings” on the Bethel app and in it he was talking about living in abundance. “We give our best to God, so why don’t we expect the best from him? Abundance teaches us about the very heart of God and we don’t get to tell God when or how to stop blessing us…but we do have permission to ask for more.” (Seriously, so much good stuff in that podcast, I highly recommend it for a listen.) We contemplated just getting “a cheaper car that we could pay off instantly.” Perhaps that makes more “logical sense”, but instead He challenged us to not want just ANY car, but the most expensive brand out there! And we thought, “how can we afford the most expensive one?” but then he said it was a “future investment.” And we knew when we drove it, that it isn’t just what we needed, it’s everything we needed and everything we WANTED! Because He is like that friends! He really does want what is BEST for you! Be patient for it, but do what He says and it will be given to you!

**Update from 2023: We still LOVE this van! It is now named “Odysseus” because it has taken us on many an Odyssey! We’ve been across the Carolinas, up and down mountains and to the Grand Canyon and back in this thing and it has given us no complaints! **