January 30 – “Neil the Angel”

We finally got back to the house to do some work with the stuff in the back yard.  It seems like I've been pacing back and forth, waiting for the chance to get back at doing something.  It's been too cold for almost a week.  Now that's a very strange thing to say about life in Galveston, Texas.  And it seems like more and more other pressing matters have wormed their way into our life.  There have been some days where we couldn't have gone even if it was perfect weather.  Well, today was a great day and we made it.   It was afternoon before we got there, though.  This morning we drew up some sketches of where we wanted electrical outlets and light fixtures to be.  We were hoping our contractor would call and want to meet with us about windows or doors or plumbing or something.  No call.  But we did get that picture drawn.  Then after lunch we headed on down.  Finally.  Finally.   So why did I have such a feeling of malaise?  This was my chance to get some stuff cleaned and moved across the street to storage.  It was all I could do to decide where to start.  I finally settled on the remnants of our cedar chest.  It fell apart in the flood, but we saved the pieces of cedar.  For some reason it repelled mold.  I started to just move it over, but Chris reminded me it hadn't been cleaned yet.  So I set up one cleaning shop and she set up one of her own.  She opened a storage bin with our Easter decorations.  I noticed she threw away a lot of stuff.  Then she said she was going to wash all the plastic Easter eggs.  To me, that just seemed like a task that would never end.  I asked her if it wouldn't be easier to just buy new ones.  Not the right thing to say.  I had forgotten how hard it was to lose "our" things.  In the first place, replacing them with all new stuff is probably not going to happen for us.  We are using our insurance money to pay off our mortgage and get the house fixed up to live in again.  There's not going to be enough for brand new everything, so it gets frustrating to hear people say, "At least you get a brand new (fill in the blanks)."  Also, brand new things, or things donated by good friends, as great as they are and as much as we appreciate them, are never going to be the same as what had become "ours" over our 33 years of marriage.   As we sat in the house and "contemplated" the situation from our dual positions of depression, an angel walked in the door.  Oh, he looked remarkably like our neighbor Neil, but there's no doubt about it.  He was a messenger of God.  An angel.  He walked in and started on a tirade of encouragement like I haven't heard in years.  He pointed out how far we had come.  And how much work we have done.  And how fast the rest of our house was going to go.  By the time he took a breath I just wanted to hug him.   Reminds me of Hebrews 13:2-3: "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."   Father, thank you for sending us Angel Neil.  Amen.