Calling my daughter, Paige, long distance with my free cell-phone minutes was one of my cost-cutting steps while I searched for a job last spring. But because my husband, Wayne, and I lived in a rural, hilly area, the cell-phone reception was limited around our house. To take advantage of my free airtime, and get a clear connection, I had to go outside and sit on a little rise under our pear tree.
In the summer and early fall, when the weather was warm, I happily sat under the pear tree. But by November winter was setting in. The day before Thanksgiving it snowed.
That morning I said the same prayer I’d been saying for months: Dear God, please continue to provide our daily bread, and please continue to help us and direct us with our financial situation. I looked down at my watch, the free-minutes time had just begun.
Peering out the window I could see icicles forming on the pear tree’s branches. My little rise was covered with a frosting of snow. I don’t want to go in the cold. Let me just try it inside. I punched my daughter’s number on the speed dial.
“Hello,” Paige answered.
“Honey, I can hear you! I’m on the cell phone inside, and I can hear you!”
“It must be the storm,” she said.
We assumed that the atmospheric conditions were just right for great reception a one-time occurrence. So we talked up a storm—over an hour—toll free.
The next day the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining. I said my prayer and then dialed Paige on the cell. Perfect reception again. Later I checked with the cell phone company and discovered there’d been no tower upgrades in my area. But all winter long as I searched for a job I spoke to Paige toll free. My reception here on earth may have been faulty, but my prayers to God had come through loud and clear!
