I have dreamed about and suppressingly hoped for owning a Honda. As I searched for a car to buy, hondas faded out of the picture with their high prices or high miles. So I shifted my focus, wondering if I would ever find a reliable car in my price range, which qualities were most important to me and which ones I would have to let go of. I test-drove cars like Goldilocks:This one's too big. This one's too fancy. That one isn't nice enough. The engine is too noisy. The brakes are squeaking. It's an automatic (they were all automatics). It's nice, but it has 100,000 miles on it. 70,000 miles you say? Is the make reliable? Sorry, the gas mileage is not good enough....
I got sick after 3 weeks of back-to-back conferences and travel. I couldn't get out of the house so my search was limited to the Internet. I quickly gave up on craig's list––how in the world could I, a single girl, know I'm not getting sold a lemon? And because I wasn't feeling well, my search radius kept decreasing, until I wasn't willing to look at anything further than 5 miles away, and even that sounded overwhelming. When seeking council from my auto-mechanic-Idaho-uncle (who buys cars for $200 and makes them run) he said of my top choices:
Those prices are outrageous! You need to look for a car in the classifieds and you need to find someone who knows cars to go look with you. Actually, what you need to do is quit looking for cars and look for a boyfriend. Go up to guys and say, "Do you know about cars?" And if you find one who says yes, then say, "Will you be my boyfriend?"
I was discouraged. Then Tuesday afternoon I had a sudden thought: Go on autotrader.com and put in what you really want with a 100-mile radius. Half-heartedly I entered:
- Honda
- sedan
- manual transmission
- less than 75,000 miles
- my price max
One car came up. My jaw hit the floor. 36,000 miles!? $3000 under my price limit! ??? Then I groaned. The dealer was 2.5 hours away! There's no way I can get to it before someone snatches it up. Anyway, something surely must be wrong with the car. And what am I going to do? Drive 2.5 hours up, look at it, drive 2.5 hours back, then find someone to drive 2.5 up with me so I can buy it and have them drive the other car back? I was on a roller coaster. From what I could tell online, it was an amazing deal. But if it was as good as it sounded, it seemed impossible to be able to be the first to get it, and just impossible logistically to get to it PERIOD!
I called immediately but got voicemail. They were already closed for the day.
Suddenly I had a thought.... Could that possibly be anywhere near where my friends live? My parents' best friends moved a few months ago (dear friends of mine, too––I grew up with them as my "aunt" and "uncle" in Indonesia) .... I looked it up on on the map. Their retirement center was 8 miles from the dealer! I started to get excited but the logistics pushed it down. I still needed someone to take me up there. Then...
Wait a minute.... The friends I'm staying with are going to Charleston... tomorrow afternoon.... Are they flying or driving? I asked. Driving was the reply. It was on the way! They could drop me off! But what if I didn't want the car? How would I get home? Wait 5 days for them to return from Charleston? No, I would find a way. I called my friends at the retirement center. "Of course you can stay with us! And Fred can go check out the car for you tomorrow before you leave Orlando..."
Excitement kept welling up and I kept shoving it down, not wanting to get my hopes up. Then I chided myself. "Sarahjoy, if God has this car picked out for you, then it will all work out. Stop worrying. Trust Him." That settled me some, but I still found myself suppressing hope with, "It probably is already taken or has something wrong with it.
The next morning I spoke with the dealer and found out it actually was a private sale he was doing for his landlord's 82-year-old father whose wife just passed away this month. They had bought the car brand new in 2000, then pulled it behind their RV for 5 years, putting 25,000 miles on the tires. It only had about 10K on the engine, driven regularly around town. He had posted it on ebay and it was already up to the listed price.
I explained that I had a ride that afternoon and could buy it the following morning but didn't want to make the trip all the way up there to find the car was no longer there. Later he called me back and said to have Uncle Fred check it out and if after that I still wanted it, he would hold it for me.
While I waited to hear from Uncle Fred, I tackled the cash quandary (the owner wanted cash; I had planned on a credit card), called for insurance quotes, called the different counties about auto tag info, and started packing. An hour before my friends hit the road, Uncle Fred called saying the car looked good! But at that point in the chain of events I would have been shocked to hear otherwise.
My friends pulled off the interstate and handed me off to Uncle Fred and Aunt Dorothy like a relay baton. After we started off I glanced at the clock, it read 6:06, which always reminds me of the Mennonite doxology because it is on page 606 in the old hymnal, and that is how my family refers to it (listen here). A little later, I caught a glimpse of a rainbow––a reminder that God is faithful to His promises.
Uncle Fred took me by to see the car, which I was able to sit in even though the dealership was closed for the night. It looked way better in real life––no fast food picture shenanigans here!
I couldn't sleep that night. I was overwhelmed by God's goodness and His orchestration of pulling off this event. I kept thinking about 82-year-old Mr. B (the owner) whose loss was my gain. There was no longer any doubt in my mind that that Honda was mine and that it was no lemon. I started thinking about what I might name the car and was looking through Hebrew names in Genesis––God hears? God sees?
The transactions went smoothly Thursday morning and I enjoyed a leisurely chat with a very sweet Mr. B over the title exchange. I should not fail to say that the fellows at Cheap Cars were wonderful. If you're in the area, and need a car or a repair, I recommend them!
After a lovely visit with Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Fred, I began my drive home Friday. Switching on my iPod, the first song that played on shuffle was:
I offer my Isaac here on your altar
Remove from my shoulders bound for the slaughter
I surrender my Isaac here on your altar
Freely I offer the love of my heart
My hands are free to praise you wholly now
To receive what you have for me
And should you take or return my Isaac, O Lord
On your altar my heart will still be
On your altar my heart will still be
I was full of joy and my heart was singing over this amazing gift and then thought, maybe Isaac would be a good name? Doesn't Isaac mean laughter? And from his story, Lord, may I never hold on to this–or anything–without being willing to let go or give it back to you. I want my hands to always be free to praise you.
But in the end, I keep returning to Ebenezer––a memorial set up in remembrance of what God has done for a person/group of people. And since I am stuck on the notion that cars need girl names, I have decided to call her Ebbie, which sounds feminine to me. This lengthy recounting is another Ebenezer for me, lest I forget the way God provided for my needs with amazing clarity, knowing too well my tendency to doubt my choices. He left no doubt that this was all HIS doing. To Him be the glory. Amen!
P.S. I searched within a 100-mile radius, but the car was 140 miles away....
