Joy Bundles

                                                    JOY BUNDLES
                                                                   T. Wieland Allen
   One of the greatest things about our knowing God is that He sends bundles of joy into our lives, incidents that could only be orchestrated and commissioned by Him.    By human means it would be impossible for certain incidents, situations and scenarios to come together to form the bundles of joy that thrill us and give us overflowing joy that is what we know as joy unspeakable, meaning the miracles of the situation are so rare and impossible that they are hard to put into human words.  One of those incidents happened to me recently and I will try to put into words the phenomenon and trust that you will follow the succession of events, believe them and that they might give you a chuckle and a thrill.
    I had reason to call a plumber because both of my showers were inoperable.  That's the only way I can explain them, being ignorant of all areas of plumbing.   One shower in the blue bathroom had worked one day and the next day it not only did not work but when I tried to force the handle to the faucet to allow water to come out of the spigot, the handle broke.  Well, there was no shower being taken out of that bathroom that day.  I went to the yellow bathroom and pulled on the handle, which always resulted in water coming out of its spigot.  Nope.  It wouldn't even turn or pull out.  No one had used it in two years so my guess was that the stem was the problem, which my favorite plumber, Robert, had cautioned me against if I did not occasionally turn the faucet on in that bathroom in order for the stem to stay workable.   I had, for a year or so, neglected to take Robert's advice.  
    So I had two showers that didn't work.  I had another bathroom with a bathtub but no one had used that bathtub in years, so its slow release of water from the spigot was so slow it would have taken all day to get enough water in which to bathe.  I quickly called Robert, the plumber, who had been faithful to my family for years.  In fact, when my husband had cancer, Robert, who is also a minister, was the only person whom my husband Steve had personally asked to pray for him.  Robert obliged and Steve had an immediate sense of peace come over him.  So Robert was our go-to guy in many ways.
    I called Robert and he said he would be able to help me with my multiple plumbing problems, which he did.  He was able to fix both of the showers in the two bathrooms and went on his way after I had told him about my husband Steve's dream about going to heaven in a dream before he actually went to heaven.  Robert was thrilled with Steve's dream, and Robert remarked that it was so wonderful of God to give Steve a sense of the love, peace and comfort of heaven before his body died.  I had told that testimony to many people and many of the people had told me that Steve's dream had taken away all fear of death from them.  Robert was equally excited because he had known Steve and he knew that God was the only originator of that dream . I also told Robert about God's dream for me before Steve died, a dream that helped me deal with Steve's death with great expectations of my having a wonderful life after Steve went to heaven.  Robert was equally as thrilled for me.   Robert had fixed my two showers that day and we had shared the marvels of God giving dreams to His children when the need arises which prepares them for an unhappy event.  Our dreams had made an unhappy event turn into a glorious event.      
    That is only part of the joy bundle.   There was more.
    The next morning after I took a shower in the newly operating shower in the blue bathroom, I stepped out of the shower, dried off and all of a sudden a strange loud noise came out of that bathroom that was certainly a matter of concern for me.  It was loud and my immediate thought was about a man who said that a pipe had busted behind his wall in his bathroom but because he had so quickly heard it, he was able to get to the pipe and fix it before it did much damage.  That was good news for me to remember but I was ill equipped to turn off the water.  I ran all over that part of the house to see if there was water pouring out of any wall, did the same downstairs in the basement and the garage, ran back upstairs and the sound in the blue bathroom was still as loud and menacing as it had been from the moment I had stepped out of the shower.  I wondered if some of the work that Robert had done the previous day had caused an old pipe to break loose at that inopportune time.  
    I called Robert and told him about my dilemma, that I was convinced that a pipe had busted behind the sink in the blue bathroom.  Robert said he would be right over, which he did.  I only had time to get dressed because a large towel had only been my mode of dress since I heard the sound of water running behind the wall in the blue bath immediately after I had taken a wonderful shower the previous day in the blue bathroom that Robert had fixed.  I barely had time to dress and clean out under the sink in the bathroom where I could hear water rushing forcefully behind the wall.  Thankfully Robert, the plumber, was able to rush quickly to my house.  I'm sure he had visions of having to knock out a wall, etc., the same image that was running through my mind.  
    Robert and I rushed into the blue bathroom.  Robert said yes, he did hear a loud voice.  He got down on his knees in front of the open cabinet door of the sink, looked inside of the door and then he looked up onto the top of the cabinet to the sink.  He picked up my portable electric toothbrush which was sitting in a plastic glass next to that wall of the cabinet to the sink and Robert said to me.  "It's Mr. Steve telling you good morning is what it is."  The electric toothbrush which had been inoperable the previous night had suddenly decided to become operable and the plastic glass containing it was beating against that wall behind the sink with a furry, making the loud noise that I thought was a busted pipe behind that wall.  
   Did I ever feel like an idiot.  Not in all of my previous investigations of furiously looking for the source of the sound of running water did I ever look on top of the sink cabinet and see my portable electric toothbrush shaking vigorously enough to make the plastic glass in which it sat to vibrate enough against that wall to sound like running water behind that wall.
    Robert was so kind.  After I apologized over and over to him for bringing him out on a plumbing job to discover that the problem was a vibrating electric toothbrush, Robert was so kind in saying that I didn't need to apologize for my dead husband telling me good morning through that toothbrush.  He said that I should savor the moment, which I was already doing because when he held up the vibrating toothbrush the first thing that came to mind was that Steve had caused the nonoperative toothbrush to suddenly become operable again without my putting new batteries in it, which I had intended to do later.  It had plenty of power left in the batteries to cause a loud enough sound to scare me into thinking that it was a busted pipe.  It had started vibrating on its own with no human help close by.
   Robert was a prince.  He would not accept any money for his time.  I had to almost chase him down to make him take what he charges just for an estimate.   Robert and I spent a few extra minutes with my telling Robert another testimony about Steve which thrilled Robert.  He had never heard such a miraculous story as the one I told him about Steve's experience in becoming a child of God.   Robert went on his way back to his other job, I'm sure chuckling about the 85 year old lady who had mistaken a vibrating toothbrush for a broken pipe.
   Later that night my loving daughter-in-law Rhea had initiated a Facetime call with me so that I could see her darling 16 month old baby boy eating his evening meal.  While we talked, I told her the story about the toothbrush which was really Steve telling me good morning.  We shared the truth of that miracle and she told me that immediately before she had called me that Cruz the baby had been sitting in his favorite kid's chair and he had looked into the kitchen, waved vigorously at somebody he was seeing there and then laughed like he was seeing someone make funny faces.  Rhea did not see anyone but she was convinced that Cruz had seen somebody spiritually and he had waved vigorously at the person and even laughed at some antic the spiritual person had done.  Rhea told me that she was convinced that the person that Cruz was interacting with was Great Grandpa Steve in the heavenly dimension making contact with his first great grandchild on the same day that he had made contact with me at my house by the vibrating inoperable electric toothbrush.
   There was no doubt in either of our minds.  Rhea said that Cruz had definitely seen somebody that was invisible to her eyes because he had waved vigorously and then laughed like he had seen somebody make funny faces.  
  The Bible says that we are surrounded in the heavenly dimension by a cloud of witnesses and it names the spirits of the people who have been made perfect as being in that cloud of witnesses.  It also says that children behold their angels who are in the presence of God.  Great Grandpa Steve made two appearances that day and both were appreciated.   I still had a foolish feeling for missing the toothbrush being the reason for the loud sound, but after remembering what Robert, the plumber, said, I genuinely appreciated the message from Steve in saying good morning to me from heaven.
   What a lucky lady I am to be able to have a Heavenly Father who allows us to witness miracles abounding in bundles that produce joy unspeakable and full of glory.