God Sent a Stump
When Ben and I moved into this house six years ago, there was a little metal shed next to the garden. And like all metal sheds, the door was too low, it was an oven in the summer, and an ice box in the winter. For a short time, his motorcycle and the riding lawn mower lived in there.
And spiders. Black widows to be exact – because metal sheds are impossible to seal up at all, let alone well enough to keep the spiders out.
Then there was the mouse that got into the chicken feed. The one that ate the few things we were storing in the shed.
So we stopped using the shed. Shortly after we moved in, an elm tree sprang up on the south side. If you know anything about elms, they are a weed-tree. They grow where you don’t want them, are nearly impossible to get rid of (you need to dig up the roots), and drop stinking sap and soft wood branches over EVERYTHING.
We cut down that elm about four years ago.
It came back. So we ignored it and the shed. Until two weeks ago when it was time to pull down the old metal shed and build a new wood shed in it’s place. The elm had slowly been peeling back the roof of the metal shed, letting in debris, dirt, bugs. Ben did what he could with the sawzall but finally had to borrow my dad’s chain saw to cut down the stump.
And then Ben started building the new garden shed. The base is the foundation of the old metal shed – it was in excellent shape, exactly where we needed it, and level.
The first wall to go up was the south wall.
And the first wall to be hit by a huge gust of north wind – and to fall over – was the south wall.
The siding was damaged but the wall was actually in okay shape; it fell into brush clippings. So Ben knew we could simply lift it back into place.
Simply.
Doesn’t apply to a 12-foot long wall made of 2x4s, siding, and a ton of nails. Especially when it fell BELOW the level of the foundation. I’m physically pretty healthy now after two babies and the surgery-that-went-sideways. But I’m not very STRONG (unless it’s carrying babies or a full coffee mug!)
Somehow, Ben got the wall to stand up (I was fishing Little Bean OUT of the dog water bowl so I missed it) and then called me to help him lift it into place.
When I got to the build site, I realized that the wall wasn’t perched on the shed foundation; it was about two inches lower and balanced on… something.
God sent a stump.
- Six years ago, he placed an elm seed in the exact right spot to grow.
- Five years ago, we cut it down – so that it would grow back bigger and thicker.
And then it waited. Growing. Not just taller but THICKER, until it was a huge base of multiple trunks.
Waiting.
To be cut down again. To be used as the PERFECT place to rest a fallen wall so two people who weren’t strong enough to lift the wall back into place – could. And lift the wall relatively safely.
God sent a stump.
Long before the wall fell, Ben found the perfect piece of scrap 2×12 to fit OVER the stump – to turn it into a bench. He thought I’d want to sit there to watch the kids play. *I* knew it would really be the perfect reading nook in the future for a little girl who loves to be outside.
God sent a stump.
I don’t know why I still get so surprised when the God of the Universe puts things in my path for the perfect use at the perfect time. Maybe because I usually only see the immediate serendipity. This had been set into motion six years ago.
My author, the way you and I are together today was also set into motion YEARS ago. Gods perfect plan has been in alignment all this time so that you would be reading this email, today. He has worked in my life over my lifetime but especially over the last five years – when I went from knowing there was a higher power to knowing God.
That stump was in the exact right place at the exact right time to help us.
And maybe, today, I’m YOUR stump. We’re together in the exact right place at the exact right time so I can give you the stable boost you need to finally write your book and share your message.
Join me. Come to Prescott next month. Register for “Brew Your Book – LIVE! Stop Percolating on Your Message and FINALLY Write Your Book”.
When you look back at this moment in your life, I want you to see the moment that your life changed – for the better. The moment that your message sprang into life and went out to do good work in the world.
God sent me a stump.
What is He sending you?