Daily Angel Food
Card Number 8

This is a scene on the Sabinal River below my home after the roaring waters seceded. July the Fourth was to be a great celebration of Independence Day, but I found it called for more Dependence on God than I had ever expected.

Sitting on the couch in my downstairs den, I had just finished my morning Bible Reading and Prayer when I noticed the river beginning to rise. It's bank is about 200 yards from the back of my home.

At first I just prayed that it would go down and not flood like it did five years earlier.

At that time it had come four feet high inside our house and washed out a lot of furniture, broke windows and glass doors, and ruined appliances. With help from family and friends, we restored what was lost and made it better than before. Surely, it would not flood again.

Although I prayed, it continued to rise. So, I asked God for wisdom and began carrying as many things upstairs as I could. Just as the water was nearing my back door, I put my neighbor's house key in one pocket and the dog leash in the other, grabbed my Bible and purse and hurried toward where Banjo, our small black and white blue heeler, was tied. As I put him on his leash, I saw his dog house float away. We ran to my car where I put him in the back seat and I drove up the hill to my neighbor's house.

My neighbor was in Africa on a mission trip so Banjo and I were alone there. But what a blessed place to be...so like being in the cleft of the Rock. God was sheltering me in the finest way. We had air conditioning, food, water, television, and telephone. Not to mention the newly built deck overlooking the mountains and the flood as it continued to rise. On one side was the Sabinal River. On the other side was Onion Creek. They were both rising and coming to a point by my home.

Soon, even my neighbor's drive was a gushing river. There was no way for me to get out. If I had there was no place to go except the highway...and other crossings between it and town were flooded.

" Just in case"...I decided to get a ladder from their old shed. I could picture myself being one of those rescued by a helicopter. Dragging it on to a little red wagon, I was able to tug and pull until I got it to her garage. It was a thirty eight foot long aluminum extension ladder and very heavy. I asked the Lord to send angels to help me lift it against the roof. He must have, because I was able to get it up there. Thank goodness, I never had to use it.

My husband who was seeking a divorce from me, returned to help. If anyone could get through, he could. And he did before the second rise, just like the first, came down two days later. He spent two weeks working harder and faster than any man I could imagine, to move us upstairs in our home and make it livable for me.

When the waters went down and we returned to our house, the bottom floor was totally gutted out. Refrigerator and freezer and furniture had gone down the river. Washer and dryer out in the yard. Piano crushed beyond repair, three couches piled up in a corner, coffee table, end tables, bar, bookcases, all out the windows or doors. Trees half-way in the windows and some all the way. My beautiful rock work on the outside crumbled in many places. Butane tank gone, water system ripped out, garden and fence demolished. I still don't know what all is gone and just as soon not think about it.

Upstairs was not damaged at all. We raised our house years ago so that it is supported on telephone poles cemented in the ground. Now the downstairs looks like the wide open spaces. We laugh with our friends who come by and tell them we are having "open house".

I say "we", but it's no longer "we", as even through all of this, and as nice as my husband was, he is still pursuing the divorce. This is harder for me to take than losing half of my house.

God makes me laugh from time to time. He reminded me that before the water began rising that morning I had asked Him to send some angels to "help me clean house". When I told my son, he said, "God really does things in a big way, doesn't He?"

As I stood on my neighbor's deck and visited with my Lord each morning of the flood, I knew God had brought me up "higher". He taught me many things from His Word and by His Spirit. The main thing was that this flood demonstrated the power of God. Big Cypress trees rolling top over bottom, buildings being moved and thrown down the river, as was my husband's new workshop, nothing able to stop this flood. No man had the power to stop it. Only God. And He did. In His perfect time and perfect way.

The debris left behind became symbolic of all the hidden sins in our lives that we may not even be aware of. But now, they have been dug up, and as we see them, we can ask God to help us do something about them. Through all the danger of the flood, God kept me in a safe place, providing my every need in abundance.

Now, as I face life alone. I know I am never really alone. My Father has been with me all the way.

He promised to "never leave me nor forsake me", and I know He won't. Life will be different now.

My downstairs will be turned into a play room, large patio, or place for the local musicians and young couples to meet, have fun, bar-b-que, and praise the Lord.
It was never my idea for my husband to leave, but I guess when we ask God to clean house for us...it may not be exactly as we expect. Actually, the river has never been more beautiful.