Mrs. Coffee (part III)

Sorry it's taken so long to get this last part up! We've been on vacation. Pics of that to come....

So I thought all was well, relatively speaking. We'd gotten over the initial trauma and even got a little gift to salve the pain. God even taught my son a valuable truth for life. What I didn't know was that He had a little lesson in store for me too.

Josh's last words before leaving for school were, "Mom, I want to keep Mrs. Coffee's shell forever....", right?

Well, I went about my business that day. At lunch, Greg came home and said he'd hired a service to come clean out and mulch our front beds. Great! I was planning to do that and now I didn't have to! They came and I happily let them do their work. They were almost completely done when I realized -- I left Mrs. Coffee out there! I ran outside to see if she might still be in the spot I had placed her. No, of course not. I asked the man if he happened to see it and he said he hadn't. He asked his wife and, no, she hadn't either.

Though he spoke limited English, I asked with lots of motions, "Could you tell me where the debris is that you cleaned out from this spot?"

The man pointed to a large blue tarp covered 2 feet deep in leaves and thorny cuttings. I felt so defeated.

Though it would be next to impossible, I knew I had to try to find that grotesque snail in her beautiful shell, so I got on some gloves and started rummaging. The couple doing my yard must have thought I was crazy so, in limited Spanglish, I did my best to try to convey my situation. Son's pet, died, very sad, must find. They must have kids too because they stopped what they were doing and got down on their knees to help me. They were getting a tip whether we found that shell or not! We searched for what seemed like forever when it hit me that this was not possible. Finding something the size of a half-roll of dimes in a thick pile the square footage of my laundry room (if it was even in there at all), didn't put the odds in my favor. Besides that, I knew this nice couple were done and needed to move on to the next job. My eyes started to sting. I thanked them for trying to help me and told them not to worry about it anymore, but I would search for a couple more minutes. They got up and started loading their equipment on the truck. They would need this tarp too, I knew.

I know, generally speaking, we don't see miracles in the big, physics defying way that are described so many times in the Bible, but I can tell you that I have experienced God putting a non-sensical kind of faith in me that resulted in that kind of miracle twice before in my life. I felt Him doing that in me right then, again, as I stopped and prayed in tears, "Lord, you know how much this ridiculous snail means. You know I have to find it and you know exactly where it is. Please show me where it is."

I looked down and there it was right by my knee.

I grabbed it, ran over to show it to my new yard friends (they were delighted), and hurried into the house. As soon as the door closed behind me, I leaned against it and cried! I felt so overwhelmed with how God made significant something so INsignificant. Again - just because He cares. Someday, I'll know why....

When Josh got home, placed right where he could see it, was displayed an empty, clean and polished shell.

"Thanks, Mom," he said, and gave me a big hug. "I'm going to go put this with my other shells". And it was just that easy. HA! If he only knew...;)