Today, I begin my series with guest author and friend, Mary Vee. Mary is a Christian fiction author and today, she shares a story of God’s divine intervention in her life. This story reveals to us that God is interested in every detail of our lives. Whatever touches us, touches Him. God cares about the things that matter to us. Her story reminds of the passage found in Isaiah 59:19 “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Be sure and show appreciation to Mary for sharing her story with us.
Mary Vee: Thank you, Carla, for inviting me to your blog. I’m so happy to be with you and your readers.
Today, I would like to share how God has been ever present with me. I have so many stories to tell. Stories of God’s protection, humor, love, and grace. All never-give-up stories. I suppose I could fill a book. Instead, I sprinkle the retellings into my character’s lives on the pages of my novels. You’d be surprised which ones are not my creative genius, but true to my life.
I’ll start with The Great Flood. Hubby and I had a five-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl at the time of this event.
Ever Present. Ever with Me
By Mary Vee
Adventure energized our young married minds, so we moved from a rented city townhouse to our first home, a bungalow on an island in northern Michigan. There was a tiny clinic, a small tourist grocery store, bear, cougar, moose and more. The only way on or off the island was the car ferry that held maybe fifteen cars max, or one school bus, or the village ambulance. We soon learned the island fit the cliché, living in a fishbowl.
The meager possessions of our young family filled the separate garage set in the postage stamp backyard walled with cedar trees, while we renovated a soiled-by-a-dying, elderly man house now our home. The children settled in the two bedrooms upstairs. Hubby and I took a small room on the main floor. One week later, my daughter called down the stairs, “There is water in the front yard, Mommy.”
Yeah, right. Why would there be water? It hadn’t rained. It was summer. I looked out the dining room window and gasped. Hubby and I ran outside to the garage, pulled down the ladder to the loft and hoisted boxes to the upper level as fast as we could.
We city apartment folk never dealt with such an issue. Our arm muscles burned. Sweat poured down our backs. The kids helped as much as they could. Water crept closer to the opening of the garage.
A car stopped in front of our house. A woman and a man rolled up their pants and waded through the water toward us. “Do you need help?” It was the pastor and his wife from the only church on the island.
They helped us move boxes into the loft. The moment—this is no exaggeration, the moment the last box was lifted from the garage floor, the water poured in. Everything was saved. Well, mostly everything. The furnace, located in the earthen crawl space of the house, drowned. And that, dear reader, created another amazing God story to be told another time.
The next day we learned what caused the flood. Apparently, earlier that year, hunters had killed the beavers who made the dam in the pond in the middle of the island. (A This is the House that Jack Built story). With the beaver gone, the dam was not maintained. The branches and other tangled debris forming the dam broke apart on this day, freeing the water to forge downhill, through the village, flooding houses, including our one week old first home.
The pastor lived one mile, in the other direction from the pond. How did he know new people moved in on the Monday-five days before, the dam broke that morning, water sailed toward our house, no one was home near us, and that we desperately needed help?
I learned the blessings of a small, close community that day. I learned God loved my family so much He inspired my daughter to look out the window, he whispered to the pastor and his wife to come help, and he held the water back until our last box left the floor.
Ah, that was a day. A day God blessed our family. One of numerous times God proved He is ever present. Ever with me.
As the years drifted by and countless other events happened, including the story of the furnace, God showed me the good in having Never Give Up Stories. He inspired me to take these stories and write characters who wanted and needed hope, redemption, peace, and love. All stories that show God is ever present. He is ever with us.
My books are available on Amazon. Go to: Mary Vee Author Page and choose a story for your holiday season. Great for stocking stuffers and gifts, or a good read for yourself. Christmas With the Enemy is my new release: Click Here
Mary Vee – Rock climbing, white-water rafting, and hiking top Mary’s list of ways to enjoy a day. She was homeless for a time, earned her MA in Counseling, and married an Air Force vet. These events and more have helped her write Never Give Up Stories. Mary has been a finalist in several writing contests and writes for her King.
Visit Mary at her website, blog, and her ministry blog to families: God Loves Kids. Or chat on Facebook or Twitter . Below are books by Mary Vee available for purchase on her website.
God brings people together at just the right time, and He does take care of us! So glad your things were saved. My own house had troubles the week we moved in. But God took care of us too.
I absolutely LOVE that God is in the details of my life! It is so comforting to me, and, I can sometimes remember to thank him for the “little” things – that aren’t little – more often than I remember to thank him for the huge blessings and events! Thank you for sharing this story, and I loved the word pictures that formed in my mind from your descriptive writing!
Carla and Mary, I very much enjoyed your story and the message of hope and love shared here. I don’t know why I should be amazed that God cares about the “little things” (that aren’t really little). But, each day, God fills with our lives with miracles, small ones when we consider the grand scheme of things, but miracles non the less. Your story of the flood is a wonderful example of how God brings things together into just the needed plan. Thanks for sharing this inspiring message.
Carla and Mary, I absolutely loved this story which enticed me to read to the end. Mary, your writing is not only enjoyable and encouraging but also gives the reader a mental picture of the setting. Stories like these remind us of how much God cares for us. From my heart to both of you wonderful writers, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me to your wonderful blog, Carla!!