I was driving all over the Lower Mainland delivering Christmas cookies that Heather had baked for our supporters. This was before Google Maps and I had planned out my route by hand: 85 drop-offs to make in 3 days.

My dad had told me I should get Heather a better van to haul around our 4 kids well. And my Father was telling me as I drove around in our old Ford Windstar that he loved me a lot. Like, really a lot. After that first day I was starting to believe he’d be OK with us getting a better van, even though this one still worked.

Not that we could afford it. Our regular support barely covered our needs and we hadn’t had any special one-time gifts for several months. As I drove, I tried to believe what God was telling me about his extravagant love. By the end of the second day I was almost believing we could actually get a nice new van, like the Toyota Sienna we both admired.

Then it hit me.

Not God’s love. I got hit by an actual vehicle. Hard. Like, I went flying sideways across the intersection I had stopped at. While I was still in the air I had the thought, “we’re getting a brand new van!” As I took a $70 taxi ride home, which was a lot for us back then, I called Heather with the good news.

Immediately the money started pouring in. They wrote off our van and gave us more than the book value. The visit I had just come from resulted in a $10,000 gift. The government messed up a calculation on our taxes a few years earlier and sent us a refund. We found an old cheque we forgot to cash. Within two weeks we suddenly had $22,000. I went van shopping.

The salespeople were trying to tempt me with really great deals on used vans that I could get for that price. And it was working. I was struggling to not be all responsible with the money and get the good deal on the 4 year old Honda Odyssey. But I was determined to receive God’s extravagant love. I held out, went into debt and bought the brand new Sienna, which at that time was $37,500 including all the taxes and fees.

Over the next week, more money mysteriously appeared from several sources, only one of which knew we were buying a van and wanted to help us out. Three weeks after my accident we had $37,300. So many people listening to God and responding to his promptings. Except one, I guess, so I pitched in the last $200.

After that, no one gave us a surprise gift for the next 9 months. Then the boiler that heated our house broke. $800 to patch it together or $4,000 to replace it. Believing again in God’s love, we replaced it with money we didn’t have. Four days later we got a cheque for $4,000.

The van was in our family for over 15 years, always serving as a reminder of the overwhelming love of God, and inviting us into a new way of seeing all our circumstances.

By the way, please don’t try this at home, spending money and believing God will repay. That’s not the point. God may show his love to you in a thousand different ways. But this was really significant for us.