Perfect Timing

We had lived in our first home in South Portland, Maine less then a year when I was awakened out of a sound sleep at three in the morning by someone pounding on our door and lights flashing through the windows. My first thought was that our house was on fire and that seemed to be confirmed when we threw open the door to find two firemen standing there. But it was not our house but our neighbors. A small fire had begun in the kitchen but they had all been sleeping and by the time they were awakened by the smoke it was too late and they lost almost everything.

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And so in June 2005 we had a warehouse full to the brim with thousands of workbooks and DVD sets. We had been careful to secure it as best as we could and were simply basking in the fact that everything had fit into the space perfectly. On June 16th, Jodie and Rosemary headed for the warehouse early in the morning to take inventory and organize the boxes in a systematic way.

They arrived at 7:00 AM. It was already getting hot outside, after all this is Georgia in the summertime, but inside the warehouse was cool because of the new air conditioner that had just been installed days before. A half hour into the morning it began to warm up inside the warehouse and by eight o’clock it was unusually hot. Rosemary went to inspect the air conditioner only to find it was smoking and a small fire had started. They were able to quickly unplug the air conditioner and douse the fire with the bottle of water Rosemary had brought along.

The fire department came and checked everything out. The air conditioner was defective we were told but other than that everything else looked fine. We soon had a new air conditioner installed and have had no more trouble with the warehouse since that time.

It would be easy to say it all was just a coincidence that somehow we just got lucky. It was just a coincidence that Rosemary and Jodie just happened to be at the warehouse so early in the morning on that particular day. It was just coincidence that they noticed the change in temperature, that the air conditioner had stopped working. It was just a coincidence that Rosemary checked the air conditioner and just a coincidence the she had a bottle of water and just a coincidence there was enough water to put the fire out.

And yet there was no space for error. If they would have arrived at nine instead of seven it would have been too late and we would have lost everything. If the room had remained cool but the fire continued it may have advanced too far for a bottle of water to put it out and the whole warehouse would have burned down, in fact the exact amount of water was important. No, the timing had to be perfect and it was. In this case timing was everything.

Coincidence? I call it a God-incident. He was in control and He protected us once again.

Psalm 31:14-5

But as for me I trust in Thee O Lord,

I say, “Thou art my God.

My times are in Thy hands.