Pizza

A funny moment

One day when I was home in Rosemary Beach, I made a quick afternoon trip to the local Publix to do some grocery shopping. That evening, I didn’t feel like cooking, so I decided on a pizza. A frozen pizza. Yum. Opened the freezer door. No pizza. Knew I had bought one at the store, so I was about 80% sure it was still in the trunk of my car. Uh-oh. It was about 90 degrees that afternoon. Pizza might be baked. Got my car keys, went outside, and popped the trunk, fully expecting to find? No pizza. Well, at that point, I was nearly 100% sure I had left the pizza at the check-out counter since, after thinking about it for a while, I remembered not carrying it to the car, being over-sized, a bit big for a normal plastic bag. Praying with a smile, I said, “Well Lord, I could go back to the store, but I don’t think a trip, gas, time, is worth a seven-dollar Paul Newman’s Margherita Pizza. I guess I can absorb the seven-dollar loss.” A funny moment. As I turned to go back into the house, I looked down on the driveway parking pad and found a ten-dollar bill. So, what were the chances of that happening? Near zero, of course.

I prayed a quick “thank you” and, as always, was amazed that the Lord would provide for me in such a minor or seemingly insignificant way. I am always careful to make sure that these odd things that happen occasionally are from Him and also that I understand and learn all He wants to communicate to me. I was thinking there was more to this episode than a pizza-replacement plan. After this prayer, I received what I call a triple A (Almost An Audible), a very clear thought that certainly didn’t come from me: “Tony, if I am willing to cover your loss of a mere seven dollars, how much more, will I cover the loss that you are experiencing now?” 

The thought occurred to me to put this very special ten-dollar bill in a shadow box with a plaque identifying the story, date, and source, but the Lord gently reminded me that He is essentially dumping ten-dollar bills on us twenty-four hours per day. We just don’t notice. Why then was this such a big deal or any different? So, I spent the ten bucks.

Tony Carvalho