The Ways of God~A Story from Cordell Baker

 

The Ways of God

We had just begun our midweek prayer and Bible study service in the little storefront building we rented for our church. Suddenly the wind began to howl. The doors rattle and with each gust of wind the double doors partially opened allowing a cloud of dust and a draft of sand to enter. With our eyes full of dirt and unable to speak we dismissed the service. The car proved to be the most secure from the dust so we took refuge in it. We drove by our church building project to see that everything was anchored down safely. To our utter dismay, we found half the roof structure laying upside down in the lot next door. We went home and for a little while we just cried. Our disappointment knew no bounds.


We had started this building project when we had only seven members in the church and $400 in the bank. I was too young and green to know that it couldn't be done, so we just did it anyway. We tore down an old house for lumber. I walked the banks of the Columbia River and picked up drift lumber that had washed down from the dam project upstream. We traded a lot for another on which was an abandoned, partially completed store building with a pile of lumber with it. The walls and roof were up and the subfloor was down and we had begun the wiring. But now half the roof lay in a heap..


I called my friend and mentor, a retired building contractor. This tough old gentleman was a former professional boxer and wrestler, but I could hear him openly sob over the phone, though he tried to be upbeat about it. We didn't sleep much that night and I was up at first light. I knew "Pop" would be there early to work. Before seven we were on the job and by noon we had cleaned up the mess and salvaged as much lumber as we could. Before the afternoon was over we had scabbed together as many salvageable rafters as we could find. Next morning we began to put it back together.

While we worked we had a continual stream of curious onlookers and visitors. One of them was an insurance man. He had stopped by a week earlier and wondered if we wouldn't want builder’s risk insurance. We hadn't even stopped work, but simply told him to write up a "binder" and we would settle later. Even though this man had earlier sought to keep our church from even being started, he was a young and honest man. He came by to tell us that he had not even done the paperwork, but his word was good and we were covered. When it was all settled we actually made money on the roof.

God's ways are truly beyond our comprehension. That storm proved to be the best thing that could've happened to the ongoing work of the church. Now, people we hardly knew began showing up on the job with hammer in hand to work. About six weeks later we moved into the uncompleted building for our first service. A large crowd turned out and a rough couple responded to the invitation to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Several others of the town came for membership. Nothing to that point had done as much to put the church on a solid footing as the sight of that roofline in the lot next door and evident determination of that little congregation to believe God and move on from what appeared to be a tragedy. It

"How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out" Romans 11:33