Out with the old (and cold).

Monday, September 14, 2009

Last week, my aunt gave us a steal of a deal on a fancy nearly-new "french door" refrigerator.

It's fantastic. It has an icemaker and a water dispenser, which we were lacking; it works better spacewise for our small kitchen; and it puts fruits and vegetables at my daughter's eye level, which has already been much better for her food requests. I love it. (Okay, I would love it a little bit more if it were a black Big Chill. But you can't have everything you want in life.)

Despite the windfall of a nearly-new fancypants fridge, though, I feel even happier about how we came to rid ourselves of the old fridge. After a week on Craigslist and several days on a local "bargain hour" on an AM radio station, I hadn't had a single bite. Odd, when I was asking less than $150 for the fridge, I thought. I found a local thrift shop that would take it, then posted a rather desperate request on the local Freecycle group for someone with a truck to come and help me move it there.

I heard back from several people who wanted to take it for free, and I resisted, until a shy woman called and told me reluctantly that their fridge had just gone out, ruining all their food. She has three kids, and can't afford the prices at rent-a-center. Could she possibly pay me $25 for mine instead-- on Friday?

I love the thrill that comes with a God Moment. They're not that common, hard to describe, hard to relate without sounding a little kooky. But I didn't even hesitate when this woman made her shy request. Something that I believe is the Spirit within me lept up and all but shouted in my head: YES. GIVE IT TO HER. It was out of my mouth before I even thought about it.

She was at our house within thirty minutes, beaming, a friend helping her load it onto the truck. Will she come back Friday with the promised $25? It doesn't even matter.

I had a fridge clogging up my life, looking trashy on my front porch. She had hungry kids with no place to store food for them.

Done deal. So satisfying, to be used to meet an unknown need like that. I just love it.