Spoiler Alert: When Jesus healed my freezer

“What is that awful noise?!” I said.

“Bdddrrrrddrrrrrdddrrrrddrrrrr,” replied a throbbing vibration from the laundry room.

I hurried in to look, and found the door of my upright freezer hanging open several inches, the contents melting, and the motor making a fearsome racket. “No! Son, when I sent you for bread an hour or two ago, did you really leave the freezer door standing open?”

Ryan was gone, attending a brothers’ meeting at church. I can pretty much count on this when anything mechanical goes wrong—and church work is the best. I don’t know if it’s the devil or just Murphy’s Law, or both in cahoots. I shut the door and waited a while, but I was afraid the motor would ruin itself, working so hard, so I turned the system off and waited for Ryan to come home.

When he came, it didn’t look good. He turned the freezer on only to hear it start roaring again. He tinkered a while, unplugged it and pulled it away from the wall, restarted it to more noise, unplugged it again. “I think we need to move the food to ice chests,” he said. The containers were starting to drip.

So we transferred as much as we could to the fridge freezer in the kitchen, and packed the rest into ice chests and boxes. A feeling was growing on me, but I was too shy to say it until our task was done, until Ryan was ready to leave the room.

“Honey, I just think we need to pray that Jesus will heal it,” I said.

I didn’t tell him I’d already prayed this prayer in desperation while he was at church, and it hadn’t changed a thing. When I said “we” I was talking about him. The Lord had started me on an extensive summer course entitled Honoring Ryan as the Authority In Your Home, with an extra-curricular non-negotiable elective of Deferring to his Spiritual Leadership.

He dropped a hand on the freezer’s side. “Lord,” he said, “I need you to heal this freezer. I don’t have the time and money for this.” And he left to do some more research on possible causes and fixes.

But I didn’t leave; I was thinking. Presently I thought, “Why not?” and I pushed the plug back into the wall. The noise started up, but shifted immediately into a puttering, ticking, readjusting sound that subsided most meekly into a purring, fully functional freezer.

I waited a while to be sure, and then I went and found Ryan. “I think the Lord answered your prayer,” I said. And He had. The freezer walls and racks got their frosty-pump-handle look back on again. We loaded all those boxes and bags of food back in—hey, it was a great chance to organize!—and in a few hours everything was nice and firm.

We haven’t heard the noise since, not even when my son left the door hanging open again the next week…

I’m not tacking a moral on the end of this story, but I spent time wondering why God answered my husband’s prayer and not mine.

I only know that in the past year I had begun to see hints in myself of the woman I never wanted to be—the woman who Knows Best, the self-proclaimed bearer of deep spiritual insights, tolerant of her husband and pastors until they come to the full measure of spiritual stature. So help me God; I never want to go there. And He has mercifully begun closing the path to me.

Thank you, Jesus.

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Wendy
8 years ago

Keep talking, dear! I am listening (and hopefully, learning).

Gloria
8 years ago

Love this post! Love your honesty! Do you see into other people’s minds? 🙂 cuz I think you can read what goes through mine…

8 years ago

Ouch. Your last paragraph is pointing out some of my flaws. Hope you share some more God answers.
Gina

Maribeth
8 years ago

Good words. I guess we were warned about that usurping authority thing..

Anon
8 years ago

And my spiritual forehead was also bullseye for this blogpost. I am repenting…….

Chastin
8 years ago

Love this post! Love you and love your honesty. It’s so wonderful that you’re back writing on your blog again. I feel as if we’re just sitting, catching up over a cup of coffee and a sweet snack. Miss you sister. Love your words and can’t wait to read more of what’s to come. Blessing to all. xoxo

Irene
8 years ago

This post blessed and encouraged me. God heals how and when He sees it as an opportunity to increase our faith or point out other truths we need to discover. I appreciate how you are growing in your tolerance of an imperfect husband and pastors! God bless you.

8 years ago

I love it! God’s work in the little details. So great!

Sharon
8 years ago

. . .and the power of His presence when two or three are gathered in His name. Thanks, Shari, for reminding us that nothing is beyond God’s scope, whether it is our heart or the freezer.

8 years ago

Shari, I’m excited for your freezer 😀 and I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on husbands and spiritual authority–either in a blogpost or an email. 🙂 We’ve seen this pattern of answered prayers when we prayed for my healing, so I’m listening intently.

8 years ago

I’ve seen this same thing in our house, and would like to hear more about your thoughts on this. Is it the two or three promise or is there something supernatural about a leader humbling himself and asking the almighty’s hand in a situation. I love this story….like a hug from Jesus.

8 years ago

Charity has a story about how God healed our flour once after the electric went off. It was healed… amazingly so. God loves to give Good Gifts to His children, and sometimes we have not because we ask not and sometimes God loves that private prayer but I think he also loves the “where two or three are gathered together” prayers too–which is what I think it was when Ryan prayed with you. 😉

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