Last February I wrote about an incident I had six years ago while past oring down in Lequire. Jill and I came home from a trip and discovered our refrigerator had quit. Simpl e fix, just kicked a breaker and it started running again. Everything in it was ruined, though.
Well, Tuesday last week it happened again, only worse. As storms were moving into the area Monday evening, and the threat of severe storms with large hail predicted, we thought it would be a good idea to move the cars into the garage. After much moving, shifting and rearranging we were able to get two of the three vehicles in the garage.
Monday night ran into Tuesday morning and the threat of storms was just that, a threat. No storms, hail or really anything severe happened. Jill and I got up early Tuesday morning and drove to Tahlequah for a doctor visit.
Upon our return, we moved the cars out of the garage so we could walk through there and put some stuff from the pickup in there. As I was backing out one of the cars I noticed a stream of water coming from the deep freezer. I asked Jill why there was a stream of water coming from the deep freeze. She walked over, looked intently and replied, “Probably because the door is opened about two inches!” Yep, that would do it. Better survey the damage.
We lost all the poultry (turkey and a couple packages of chicken), along with some frozen vegetables, but all the beef and pork was still about forty degrees. We can salvage this party. With that we began the arborous task of cooking to save the meat.
Did I mention we cooked what was thawed??? Oh yeah, I did, and cook we did. I cooked a box of sausage I had just bought the week prior to this incident… 100 two ounce patties. Then I cooked the round steak, deer and beef. Next I cooked sirloin, T-bone and ribeye steaks. Oh, and there were also 5 pounds of hamburger patties that were cooked. I cooked out on the patio on my Black Stone grill for the next 3 ½ hours.
While I am doing this outside, Jill is browning hamburger in the house in our big electric roaster. She cooked about 15 pounds. We also cooked five roasts (2 arm, 2 chuck and a pikes roast) in another electric roaster while there was a big brisket cooking in the oven.
We let everything cool, packaged it up and put back in the freezer. Heat and eat meals ready to go I said! All totaled, we were about seven hours of cooking, cleaning, packaging and putting back in the freezer (yes, we checked freezer and it was working great, just have to keep door shut!).
Certainly not how I expected to spend my Tuesday afternoon and evening.
All this reminds me that sometimes we get so caught up in our plans we forget about God’s plans. What does He want from us on any particular day or time? We get our calendar, planner or schedule set and so intent on keeping it, we get totally bent out of shape if something happens that causes us to have to vary or change from following it.
Guess what, all this is called life. Here’s a news flash. Stuff happens. ‘Fridges quit, freezers thaw, sickness comes, vehicles break and families have crises! It is inevitable. We don’t have to like it but can we choose how to respond to it. We can have a fit, breakdown or go with it.
Isaiah 55:8-9, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Sometimes God has things for us that we don’t realize. We don’t always (or sometimes ever) understand the why of a situation, but we do have to trust that God has a purpose.
Why a freezer was open (or left open) for a day, I don’t understand. I don’t know what the purpose is/was. But I have to believe God does. Whether it’s a freezer door left open, a flat tire or a car that won’t start, I trust God.
Come to think of it, the freezer being left open and all the contents thawing do have one advantage. It just made fixing supper a lot easier. All we have to do is figure out what we want and thaw, heat and eat. Pretty cool as I think about it.
Your Patio Cooking Preacher, Bro. Tim
