The Van of Blessings

Van shopping was rather short lived, and would have been shorter if I'd have followed my own words of wisdom. Here is the rather long-ish story of how God is way more than amazing.

It starts with our income tax return that we filed way back in February. It was due in 2 weeks (hello, electronic filing and automatic bank deposit!) but instead was delayed 6-8 weeks for reasons that were valid but will only hold up the story unnecessarily. Yeh. Go, IRS. We were several weeks into the endless wait when it occurred to me that God was going to delay that return until the gas line was ready to go through. When the gas line progresses, we'll get a hefty check from them, and between the tax return and the gas line settlement, we can buy quite the nice ride for ourselves without financing a penny of it. God is good that way.

So I told Sam what God was up to, he agreed, and we waited patiently. Or otherwise, but we're only human. Sam would look at a van here and there and I'd refuse to look even over his shoulder at the picture on the internet screen, because (and I quote myself) "God won't give us a van until He gives us the money to pay for it. If you find a good deal before we get our money, it'll be someone else's good deal."

And then we signed papers to have the gas check released, with assurances that we'd have it the following week. I knew for a fact that the tax return would be deposited magically the following Friday, because my God is that kind of awesome. And boy-howdy, I was right. I told Sam to nix all plans he had for the day because we were going van shopping. His response? "We don't have the gas check yet." True, I said (because they didn't come when promised), but we know it's coming. It should have been here this week, so it'll definitely be here next week, and we know exactly how much money we're getting, I said. (See me ignore my own words of wisdom? Oh, the stupidity of my excited, eager little self.) And so we van shopped. And we found a van that we loved immensely. Except it was just out of our price range. Our price range was the exact amount of the tax return plus the gas money, minus the 10% that we give to God on everything that we make. That was the exact amount I was going to find a van for, because MY GOD IS THAT KIND OF AWESOME.

We walked away from that van (it was hard, trust me) and found another one. That second van came with a motorcycle - the very same kind of motorcycle my husband has wanted since I met him. And it would be sweet to ride to work in summer to save on gas. And it was just a tad over our budget, but since our budget didn't include a motorcycle it was alright to go over. God provided such a good deal on the van that we felt justified on the bike. Except, the more we looked at the van, the less happy-happy we felt about it, and we were still waiting on that gas check to arrive.

Reminder to self: God won't give you a van until He gives you the money to pay for it. That's the way He works.

And then the attorney called and said our checks were in, and could we come sign for them on Friday? You know for a fact that we were there as soon as we could make an appointment, and that very same Friday Sam woke up and checked the vans for sale online yet again. There was a new one listed that wasn't there the day before, but it didn't have a price. We debated on whether or not to even call (knowing what they're valued at normally) but after getting the check deposited in the bank we decided that one never knows if one doesn't ask. So we asked, and the van was in our price range.

We looked at the van, found nada wrong with it, and the salesman quoted us a drive-it-home-right-now price. It was EXACTLY the amount of money we had to buy a van with, because that's how God rolls. Except that's the amount of money that we thought we'd have. We didn't know that the attorney would ask for another $400 after he assured his his last bill was all inclusive. Dilemma: I knew God would give us a van for the money He gave us to spend, but now what to do? To paint a picture, this particular dealership prices their used vehicles at Blue Book or above. Can I get a Seriously Overpriced over here? Because yeh, they were. And then there was "our" van, priced at $4,000 under Blue Book value, with nothing wrong with it. We couldn't figure that out, except to say that God does great and mighty things and we just need to sit back and thank Him. (Becky found it most amazing that God will mess with people's minds to fit into His will. Why would the dealership under price the van?)

So knowing it was already a deal too good to be true, we were straight up with the salesman. "We thought we had the money to pay for the van at asking price, but we didn't know we'd have an attorney's fee of $400, so we're short that much. Can you work with us on a price?" And if you haven't guessed yet that GOD IS INCREDIBLY AMAZING then you haven't been reading a thing. They took $400 off a van that was already priced $4,000 under it's value, and there's nothing wrong with it. Nor will there be, because God won't give us junk when we wait on His timing.

My God rocks. My van is the same as the first one we found, which also happens to be what Sam was secretly hoping to get. God gives us the desires of our heart if only we'll wait on Him.