The day I turned 16 I immediately drove the family car in a quest for employment. I landed the highly sought after position of grocery cashier at Cooper’s Lucky Foods and was thereafter paid the minimum wage in 1976 of $2.30 hour. This wage was definitely earned, as we didn’t just slide the groceries one at a time across a magnetic strip. No, the customers brought their baskets to me, the cashier, where I then unloaded the groceries and individually punched in the price of each item. I would give the customer their total, take the cash and calculate the change in my head, (a lost art) and count it back to the customer. To this day I have this weird mathematical tic that developed during those years. My kids like to show me off at parties or when they have friends over, “Hey mom $16.37 out of $20,” within mere seconds I respond, “$3.63.” followed by a burst of laughter …. from them not me.
Nevertheless, the first prerequisite for car ownership had been accomplished. I was a taxpaying wage earner. The second part … not so easy. Keep in mind that my dad is the king of car buying. Never, ever go to a car lot with my father - you will either come out with the best car on the lot, or you will die of embarrassment. We shopped for cars for what seemed to be an eternity. There was always something he didn’t like - too fast, too small, too yellow, too whatever … just pick something already dad! Then one day, as I was doing my thing at Cooper’s Lucky Foods, Mr. Cooper told me I had a phone call. Dad had a car at our house for me to take a look at. Mr. Cooper gave me 30 minutes and a fatherly grin. I think he knew what was about to happen. The whole walk home I prayed “Oh, please let it be a Datsun 280Z.” The nearer I got to home I had resolved that no matter what this car looks like, it’s the first one he has shown any interest in. I will be thankful and take it!!
As I turned the corner, there she was. A 1974 Dodge Dart Sport, metallic brown, with an alligator skin roof. AM radio, vinyl seats and a portable air conditioner dropping down from the dash completed the look that every 16 girl wants. I told dad how much I loved the car and before the day’s end, it was mine. It came complete with a payment book … $74.10 a month for 18 months.
Now, it wasn’t exactly what I pictured in my mind that I would be driving but it ended up being the best car ever! It got great gas mileage and I can’t remember it ever needing serviced. Dad knew what he was doing. He knew that I couldn’t get past the looks of a car. He knew that what I needed was Him to show me what I really needed, something dependable that would take me where I needed to go.
Okay, here’s the spiritual application. Matthew 6:8b reads from the Message like this “…this is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.” Sometimes we pray and pray and tell God exactly what we want and how it should look when the whole time He knows better than us what we really need. So “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God;” (Philippians 4:6).
Are you anxious and stressed because your answered prayer doesn’t look quite like you thought it would? Rest in His perfection – Father really does know best!!
Oh, by the way, does this story reveal to you why I resent self checkout lanes?
Cya-
Brenda
Do you have a first car memory?
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