sweet answered prayer

On Monday, we had left Henri's beloved backhoe-loader on our back stoop because it was muddy, and I didn't want to bring dirt into the house. That night I asked Henri to go outside and get it before we left to go to small group. I heard Johnny go out with him to find it. Yesterday morning, Henri asked me where it was. We looked and LOOKED. Finally, we called Johnny to find out where they had put it away the other night. I was sad to learn that Johnny had never found it the night before--sad because it's been such a great toy (though it felt strange to me to feel a sadness about it because it's only a toy and I've lived through a house fire, which has partially led me to not hold onto things so tightly anymore). You see, there are backhoe-loaders in our development constantly, and Henri loves going outside with his toy and watch them and mimic their work. There were two outside our house today.

So Henri and I prayed together, asking that God might be pleased to bring the toy back to Henri. I wasn't sure how to pray because I didn't want to tell God that we "needed" the backhoe-loader, but that it was a delightful toy to Henri, but not more precious then God of course... "In Jesus' name we pray, Amen."

Henri headed into the backyard with his dump truck to play in the neighbor's dirt driveway. I watched him from my bedroom while I cleaned up. Then on the other side of our garage near the utility boxes, I SAW his backhoe-loader! I opened the window and called out to Henri. He ran over to it,
"I found it! I found my backhoe-loader!"

"Praise God!" I said. "God's answered your prayer Henri! Can you say, 'Praise God!'?

"Praise God!" Henri responded as he happily brought his backhoe-loader to the neighbor's dirt driveway to dig.

How did it get over there? I don't know. There's some sand over by the utility boxes that Henri & the neighbor boys have played in, but we don't let them dig there anymore. Henri could have taken it over there and forgotten about it. Or one of the neighbor boys could have grabbed it off our back stoop and played with it and forgot to bring it back. In any case, Henri & I are thrilled that the LORD answered his prayers for the return of his toy. Thank you, LORD.