On Sunday, our pastor wrapped up a series on penal substitutionary atonement by preaching on Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3. As he was preaching through the passages, he brought out that the sin of the Israelites was complaining against God’s provision in their lives. “there’s no food, and there’s no water, and we hate this worthless food” they say to God, who has given them water from a stone, and bread from heaven.
I was convicted that what I have been saying to God lately is: “I don’t have anything to drive, and I hate this worthless thing you’ve given me to drive.” Grumbling against God for providing a low mileage mini-van at the same monthly payment as our little car and less in insurance is comparable with complaining about manna.
Fortunately, the Lord did not send venomous snakes to punish me. But I am humbled. So here are all the awesome things about this great provision the Lord has worked in our lives.
Lots of cargo space for luggage, strollers, groceries, or all of them at the same time.
Please ignore the clutter. I travel with a toddler you know. You may be counting the seats and saying “But Coralie, there are only 4 seats in this picture. Your car had five. How is this an improvement?”
Hmmm, what do we have here?
Three more seats appear with just the tug of two straps!
And where the seats were: look, a deep trunk space, big enough for BOTH a stroller, AND other stuff.
There’s so much room that when I bought groceries this week, they rolled around back there. I’ve got to get a grocery net.
Other cool features:
1. Dual climate control. I can set my side of the van to be comfortable, while Jonathan sets his side for Siberian winter.
2. 13 cup holders. When Jonathan pointed this out to me, I asked why we would POSSIBLY need that many cup holders. He set forth this scenario:
4 adults and three children get into the minivan (thus far a plausible tale) and stop for a fast food breakfast (also plausible – even probable). The four adults order coffee, and an orange juice – that’s eight cup holders. The three children, however, not drinking coffee, would only need one holder a piece. That leaves two cup holders empty for any empty cups left over from the previous days excursions.
I can see he has thought this out.
3. At 24 miles to the gallon, it’s not that far off the 30 we were getting in the car. It’s certainly better than any SUV or truck we looked at.
So there you have it. A provision for which to praise, not a weight about which to whine.
