A God Appointment

A really strange thing happened last night that can only be put down to God.

Bear in mind that it was the evening of New Year's Day and that not only is it a public holiday here but it is in the middle of the National Siesta which runs from Christmas Day to about the first Monday of January- although some people maintain it runs to the end of January. Most businesses in Narrabri are actually closed this week except for essential services such as groceries and beer. I've always thought that a perfect day to invade Australia would be Boxing Day because the whole country is watching either the cricket or the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and even the Defence Forces are on holiday.

We've been thinking about buying a car for Philip for his birthday- he turns 25 in a few weeks and that make insurance cheaper and with him finishing his studies and (hopefully) finding permanent work soon, it seems a good time to get him his own wheels and return the 17 year old Daihatsu home to die.

Anyway, we've been thinking about this for a while. Last night Sheree told us that she really loves her car, a Kia, and Tim thinks it's pretty good also. Not only that, there is a used one at one of the dealers, and it looks in pretty good nick.

About 9 pm, Margaret and I wandered over there to have a bit of a look under the cover of darkness. After all you don't want to put up with pushy sellers when all you want to do is look!

As we pulled up I noticed that the gate was open. Then when we got out of the car we saw there was somebody walking around inside the yard and heading towards the gate. It turns out to be the owner of the dealership-- what's he doing there at 9 pm on a public holiday?

So we talked about cars and kids. We talked about what we do and the conversation just got deeper and deeper- he just wanted to talk about his life and how it had all gone sour over the last few years. He has a very deep knowledge of the Bible and until a few years ago went to the Seventh Day Adventist church. We encouraged him to keep going and to work on his relationship with God, because in the end that's all that matters. We told him about our church and invited him to come over for a cup of tea some time when he can get away from work.

An hour later we came away, no closer to a decision about a car but certain that we had just had a God moment.