Bob Stuart wanted to upgrade some of the public address equipment in the church he attended. The new equipment was state-of-the-art; the church building wasn’t. After wrestling with wires in the attic, conduit, circuit breakers, switches, and a bunch of other stuff, Bob conceded that although he was handy, he wasn’t licensed. So he decided to bring in a professional. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours, he thought. Actually, two electricians showed up the next morning and by the time they finished they had invested a total of twelve hours in the project. As Bob paid the bill he remembers thinking, “Lord I’m going to need more help on this than I had figured.”
Meanwhile, the bathroom in Bob’s house experienced a major “plumbing event.” The shower stall that stretched across the entire width of the master bath developed a major crack. Serious enough that Bob hired a plumber, Isaiah. They talked over the project and Bob described the kind of fixture he wanted to replace the broken one. Then, because Isaiah had a pickup, Bob asked him to go by Home Depot – less than a mile away – and pick it up.
Enroute, Isaiah had an idea of his own. Later he would describe how he sensed God telling him to try another store. So he drove to another Home Depot across town from Bob’s house. As he walked into the store a sales clerk asked if she could help. Isaiah told her the purpose of his errand and the clerk said, “Those are on aisle 17, and we have some on sale right now.” Isaiah thought he saw a smile on God’s face.
After a bit of looking, Isaiah found just the shower stall that matched Bob’s description. And though it was an expensive one, the clerk was right, it was on sale. Retail was $989, but the sale brought the price down by $300. Isaiah was pumped. Another clerk helped him load the unit onto his pickup and Isaiah went back inside to pay.
The checker at the register scanned the paper work and in surprise said to Isaiah, “The computer says the sale price on this unit is $6!” Both agreed there had obviously been a mistake so they called the first clerk up to the front. She re-scanned the paper work and, totally surprised, said, “You’re right. The screen says the sale price is $6! We’d better get someone higher up to help us,” so they called the manager. He was sure they had made a mistake in the scan but after going through the process again, he turned to them and said, “You’re right. The sku says $6. Sell it to him for $6.”
When Isaiah drove into Bob’s driveway and told his story, Bob’s teary response was, “I remember reading somewhere, ‘Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…’ (Eph 3:20NKJV) He just demonstrated that to me…in my shower.”
By Don Jacobsen