Cody wanted a silver trumpet. We have been talking about it for a while now. He had been using the same beginner trumpet that was handed down to him from a friend when he was in the fourth grade, and it seemed it was time to reward his efforts with a more advanced model, but he really wanted it to be silver. Last Thursday I took all four kids to the used instrument sale at State College High School, because Austin's trombone has been broken for a year now, and he has been borrowing one from the school. We found a trombone for Austin, and Cody found a silver trumpet that he thought would be perfect. The price tag did not agree with our budget though, and we had to walk out without it. Cody was devastated. My heart was nearly broken for him. I sat in the Suburban practically paralyzed. I couldn't go back in and buy it, but I could barely stand to pull out of the parking lot. Cody finally asked that we just leave, and I told him that I really thought we needed to start praying for God to provide the right trumpet at the right price. I began praying about it immediately and took the kids to Dairy Queen hoping to cheer up my very sad boy, but it didn't really work.
The next evening we were working with the Music Boosters in the concession stand at our high school football game. Eric was standing near the window talking to a friend about the previous evening and how disappointed Cody was. At just that moment a woman was walking past and the words "silver trumpet" commanded her attention. She asked Eric if he was looking for a silver trumpet, told him that she had one and the price she was willing to part with it for, and gave him her name and number. I could hardly help declaring to my fellow music boosters that it was an answer to prayer.
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| My Happy Boy! |
This week we got in touch with her, and when I told her about my prayer, I discovered that our faith is common ground. She told me that it is very unlike her to overhear another person's
conversation, or to sell things that belonged to her children, but just
the previous week she had gotten in touch with a music store about putting the instrument on consignment. Before I went to meet her, Eric and I found that we were in complete agreement that we should offer her a certain
price for the instrument. It was one of those times when we both had
the same idea before saying it out loud. It was the strangest "business deal." Each of us was so determined to treat the other fairly that we had a hard time settling on a price. It was completely backward from the way a transaction usually works. I tried to give her more than she was asking because I didn't want to take advantage of her, and she insisted on staying with the lower price. We finally agreed on a compromise, and after I wrote the check she told me that she wanted me to remember that she was content with the lower price and that she would be putting the extra money in her tithe check for her church.
Praise be to God! Both my new friend and I are convinced that God was in total control of the whole affair, and that Cody's silver trumpet is indeed an answer to prayer. I got to watch him play it at the football game tonight. What a blessing! What a God! I am excited to see how He will use Cody and the silver trumpet for His glory! ♥
