Testimony of the Month

"The Conversation of My Life"

The first Thursday of December 2005 it snowed. It was also the day God had a personal conversation with me by way of the Holy Spirit.

You see, I am a mechanic and occasionally I make a mistake, leave a bolt loose or some other such oversight. This time, though, it could have been catastrophic. A year earlier I had worked on a customer’s car. Now it was back in my shop for a minor leak. While looking for the leak, I discovered a mistake I’d made when the car was in the previous year. What the specific error was is not important. Suffice it to say that it could have been very serious. I didn’t really know the woman who owned the car, she was a friend of a regular customer, but I remembered she’d had two young girls with her when she’d picked up the car.

When I discovered my mistake, I thanked God that nothing serious had happened to the car--something that could have led to a crash. I thought of those two little girls and how they could have been hurt and thanked God again and again for loving me, for taking care of my work, for keeping that family safe and for bringing them back so I could fix my error.

Thanking God for my life and for everyday things was not an unusual occurrence for me. But this time He told me to tell this young lady what had just happened. Well, I couldn’t do that. After all, I didn’t know her. I was afraid she might think I was some kind of a goofball or nut-case or that I was making a pass at her or some other thing bad about me. I had no problem explaining the mechanical problem or fixing the leak free-of-charge. That would be easy. But God wanted me to tell her how He loves me and takes care of me. That’s when I knew I wasn’t going to win this argument with God. I offered to say Merry Christmas, no charge. That would be OK, wouldn’t it?

Well, after I called the owner to tell her she could pick up her car, I could not have been more nervous. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, or how, but God was sure going to be in the conversation. As I waited for her to arrive I looked out my shop window and noticed that the snow had really picked up. The first snow of the year is always special. This day it was really pretty and very quiet outside.

When the woman came in the door, I was about to cry. I had a lump in my throat and my eyes were about to drip as I thought of those little girls of hers, of what could have been, but wasn’t. She asked what the charge was and thanked me for getting it done so quickly.

I told her there was no charge, that I’d made a mistake on her car a year before and that God loves me so much He kept it together for me and had it brought back so I could fix my error. I told her the leak was just a loose clamp, not a hose or anything expensive and I was happy to fix it. There! I said it! God loves me and takes care of me even when I don’t know I need to be taken care of..

Her reaction was totally unexpected. It turned out that she, too, is a Christian and that she had been praying that the cost of the repairs would be minor. This was an answer to her prayers, but that is her testimony. The chain of answered prayers that encounter set off was incredible, but I’ll share those stories some other time.

I still think about that Thursday morning in the first week of December 2005. The way my hair raised on my arms when I realized God was talking to me, the blessings I got, and still get, for recognizing His power.

– Claude McElvain

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