I had an appointment with U of M dental school this past week, and parking is three dollars and I was broke as a joke. But, my wife found three dollars that she had had leftover from something, so I said, “Oh, praise God.” And I had about a quarter tank of gas and said, “Okay, I can get out to Ann Arbor and back on a quarter tank of gas.” And as I’m pulling in and taking my little parking ticket, there’s a ginormous new sign, bright red letters that says parking is now five dollars with the validation and that it is credit card only. So, I pull in with my three dollars cash that we’ve scraped together, literally a dollar of it was in change. And I sat in the parking lot and I start freaking out ’cause I am like “What am I gonna do? I’m gonna have to sit here until” — well, what happens usually is the last patients — the clinic shuts down about 4:35 but usually the parking attendant is done by 4:30. So after 4:30, they usually just lift the gate. Nobody has to pay parking that leaves at the very end of the day. But my appointment was at 2, gonna be over at 2:30, so I thought I was gonna have to sit in that parking lot ’til 4:30, 5:00 in the 88 degree heat, you know, ’cause I couldn’t run my AC, didn’t have enough gas to sit there and run AC. And I was just starting to cry and I was starting to have a panic attack — anxiety attack, actually.
And then I’m going to put — you know how our license comes in these little like — or with our license now they give us like these little, little paper holders, you can put them in. Well, I was trying to put my parking ticket — ’cause it’s the same size — trying to put it down in there and it wouldn’t go down in there. And I pull the parking ticket back out and I stick my finger in there, just kind of pull out what’s in there. And it is a crisp, five dollar bill. Now sure, I still don’t have anything on a credit card, and it says credit card only, but I’ve got a crisp, five dollar bill. So I praise God for it. I thank God for it. I say my prayers. I go into my appointment, everything goes well, I thank God for that. I’m coming out and I get in my car and I say, “You know what,” I said, “Lord just let him take it, please let him take the five dollars cash.” I said, “I don’t care if he pockets it. As long as he opens that gate, that’s all I care about.” So I pull down to the ticket booth and I say, “I’ve got five dollars but I’ve got it in cash. I know you do credit card only.” He said, “We do?” I said, “Yeah there’s a ginormous sign behind you, bright red letters, credit card only.” He said, “I know nothing about that, ma’am.” I said, “Okay, here’s my five.” He said, “Thank you much. Have a nice day. Thank you kindly,” you know, and I went on my merry way. So I’m just grateful for blessings, large and small this week.