What... No Hot Water?

Like so many others my age, when I was a small child having hot water in your home was a luxury; just having running water was a luxury. We had running water but we had no hot water so our water was heated in a copper kettle on our stove. We had an old, cement shower stall but a cold shower wasn’t one of the things that I craved. So, the copper kettle got a real work out come Saturday night.

My bathtub was a galvanized wash tub. In the summer, it was set in our very tiny bathroom. In the winter, Mother would set it in front of the old coal stove in our living room. Dipping out the soapy water, then adding rinse water, was quite a chore but my mother did it without complaining. She also washed dishes by hand, scalding them with boiling water from that old copper kettle. And, she washed clothes in an old wringer washer, pouring hot water from the copper kettle into the wash water and into the rinse water. Today, that copper kettle sets on our fireplace hearth and brings back a lot of memories when I see it.

The last two days, I was reminded once again what it means to have no hot water. Our good plumber had worked on our water heater and thought it was fixed, as did we, but this morning, again no hot water. And, here it was Saturday.....So, I had a discussion with the Lord.

“Lord, tomorrow is Sunday and you know that we can’t go to church without showers. So, if you could possibly see fit, please, could you just let us know what the problem is and send someone to fix it? “

So, this afternoon, my industrious husband, who can fix most anything, fooled with the water heater until he found the problem. With a flip of a switch, we had water hot enough that steam was coming off it in the sink.

How many things in this life do we take for granted? The lack of hot water flowing from a faucet wouldn’t have been a problem 60 or 70 years ago. No running water in the homes was a common thing. Refrigeration wasn’t common so blocks of ice were purchased at an ice house and used to keep things cold in an icebox. Milk was cooled in spring water. Hogs were butchered and cured out in a smoke house for meat that didn’t have to be refrigerated. Telephones weren’t in homes so if you needed to share something, you posted a letter. If you needed to tell your neighbor something, you walked to their house or rode your horse. No televisions to provide entertainment, so you played games with your family and friends. You got to know each other and appreciate each other’s company. I wonder if people put more trust in the Lord back in those days than we do today?
Our material needs today are probably not as great as they were back then. But, I think perhaps our spiritual needs might be greater. A lot of us have forgotten to ask the Lord to meet our needs. We just complain if our wants are not met and forget that He desires that we come to Him with our requests. He will supply, not necessarily all of our wants but, all of our needs if we just ask.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives ; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Matthew 7:7-8 NIV