More Than Four Dollars

It was time for a yard sale. We searched through the shed in the hot, humid weather. We pulled out boxes, and searched through clothes. The “men of the family” rounded up tables and went and got them. Then we found the stickers and made the signs – it was yard sale time – and quite a family event!

Rising EARLY in the first light of Saturday, we traipsed through the morning dew to load our items to the tables. It was time. We were ready. One lonely, old man came first. Well, I don’t know if he was really lonely, but he came alone. He looked around . . . and left.

By mid morning a few, other stragglers had managed to come around. It left me praying for my daughter’s sake that someone would come to buy her things. She had worked so hard to get them all ready. By this time, we were certainly wishing it was more than just a “family event” – but a large, community event as well!

We started the “watching routine.” She watched – I went to the house to clean. Our younger son watched – we both went to the house to clean. Our fabulous yard sale was quickly becoming an infamous “uneventful, event.”

Then, an old, gray car made its “less than quiet” entrance. “Sorry about the car,” the gentleman commented as he came to “peer” over our illustrious wares. “Needs an alternator – but they cost four hundred dollars.”

We chatted in neighborly fashion for a few minutes – and then he said something that cut through the fog of life. “Well, for every bad day, there’s a better day coming” he rattled, “least that’s what my grandma always said.”

He handed me “four dollars” for something or another – but he gave me way more than money, in the middle of the “yard sale flop” he handed me hope. Hope that tomorrow would be better than today. Hope that my future was better than my past. Hope that went beyond the surface of my scenario to the current, inner need of my soul.

Soon the time frame ended. Our many “left over” items went where “Dad” deemed them necessary to go. The tables were returned, signs taken down – but the words of the gentlemen lay imbedded in my heart – “for every bad day, there’s a better day coming.”

By: Janene A. Dubbeld

For God’s Glory

Take it With You

“When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee – God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable, spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:18b-20 (The Message)