Last Sunday afternoon we got our truck stuck in the mud. Over ten inches of rain has fallen since the new year, leaving California a muddy mess. It’s been so long since we’ve had weather like this that we forgot what it’s like. All we wanted was a little wood to heat our house. And we ended up like this…

My dad came out to help us and got his truck stuck too. The ground was like quick sand in the buttes. Getting the trucks out felt like a losing battle. We spent hours shoveling mud and moving the trucks one inch at a time. But we were all together as a family so it was kind of fun. Our boys made bets on how many times Opa would drop the F-bomb. Believe me, it was a lot. I love my daddy to pieces, but he can out cuss Madonna. On top of all this, our family has had the respiratory flu. Poor Opa was so sick, coughing like crazy in between spewing the F-word in frustration.

 

With both trucks now buried in the mud, Opa finally walked to the house, and came back with his old tractor. Actually my grandpa’s tractor, and I stood there praying we could get both trucks unstuck before the sun went down. By sunset, Opa’s truck was headed for the house, but ours remained buried in the mud.

This whole fiasco made me realize how much I love my family. My crazy, dysfunctional, work your butt off, get it done family. Three generations out there helping each other, along with a neighboring farmer who has been a part of my life so long he feels like family too. Sunday night we went ahead and celebrated G2’s ninth birthday, and then borrowed one of my parents’ vehicles to make it home.

It took us three days to get the truck out of the mud. By the second day, I was pretty discouraged. It looked like the truck was going to stay stuck in my parents’ pasture until spring when the ground dried out. I prayed so hard and couldn’t understand why we were still stuck. Surely, God would let us get the truck out on the second day. As I walked back up to the house on day two as the sun went down, the Lord whispered, “trust me.”

On the third day, my dad remained home from work in the morning because he’d ordered a big tractor to come in to try to pull the truck out. We are so grateful Opa was home that day because Oma, who has been really sick with the flu, ended up having a medical emergency and Opa was there to call 911 for her. An ambulance came and took Oma to the ER, and the big tractor was able to pull the truck out of the mud after that.

Oma is doing much better now and is home from the hospital. Doctors think the flu virus caused her stroke-like attack. “It’s a good thing your truck was stuck out there in the mud,” my brother Patrick said as we talked about what happened. “If Dad hadn’t been home to call an ambulance something really bad might have happened to Mom.”

This was a new way of looking at the whole thing for me. All I could see was the hassle and cost of getting the truck out of the mud. My brother recognized the good that came out of it. Our mom was taken care of because Daddy was there because our truck was stuck out there.

I’ve been listening to the story of Joseph on the Daily Audio Bible this week. Trials and tribulations assailed Joseph for years, but out of these trials and tribulations, God brought good, not just for Joseph, but for his whole family. God was taking care of Joseph’s entire family through Joseph’s hardships. Wow!

If you’re going through a hard time right now, hold onto God’s truth. Keep reading your Bible and saying your prayers. You might not be able to see any good yet, but ultimately, God promises to work everything together for the good of those who love him. Romans 8:28.