Monday April 5, 2010 - Hanover, Maryland

I believe in small miracles. I believe in a God that loves us in ways that are just mind-boggling, whether it be sacrificing Himself to save me from myself, or something more subtle. This has the possibility of veering over into excessiveness, though I like to think I would never fall prey to such a thing. I don't break out into the Hallelujah Chorus whenever I find an extra tin of forgotten Altoids in the glove compartment. But I believe that a God who loves me enough to die for me is not above a comparatively trivial miracle from time to time to remind me of His love.

For over a month I've been researching lodging options on the East Coast. The criteria have been painfully simple:

1) Has to have a kitchen

2) Has to be furnished

3) Has to have a separate sleeping area (not a studio or one-room affair)

4) Has to be economical

Lots of options have been explored. Renting a private individual's condo or apartment looked promising and affordable, until I realized that these folks requesting a security deposit equal to the rent for the month were people I didn't know at all. And while I tend to think they're mostly decent, honest folks, the thought of being ripped off for the security deposit by an unscrupulous landlord made me skittish. Extended stay hotels seemed like another good option, but were either too expensive or didn't offer a separate sleeping room. Renting a timeshare from someone turned out to be pricey and there weren't many options in where we were looking to stay.

In desperation, last week I sat on the phone with a truly delightful young woman from Expedia and had her look for options for me. While disappointed, I was relieved that she couldn't find any options that met all these criteria either. So finally I opted for a one-week rental of a studio extended stay option with a kitchen that was a fairly good price.

We arrived at this destination Monday, and I went to check in. It's a new place - less than a year old - called Element at Arundel Mills. Arundel Mills is a shopping area - a huge mall (along the lines of Arizona Mills for all you Arizona folks out there). Element has a hotel/suites building, and right next door another building for loft rentals.

It turns out to be every bit as nice as it looks on the Internet - much nicer than I would have thought we could afford. And the irony of staying at a hotel near a shopping mall wasn't lost on me, as I've often scoffed at the type of person who would choose to lodge near a shopping mall. Such consumerist foolishness!

As I checked in, I asked the woman at the counter to verify that the room had a fold-out couch. She informed me it didn't, and I indicated that Expedia had told me it did, and that I needed one. A brief discussion ensued about the countless problems Element has had with Expedia in terms of updating Expedia's room descriptions to accurately reflect that some rooms do not have a fold out couch.

I asked what options were available, and she began searching their system. At which point, the manager on duty said "Just give them a one-bedroom". As in a room with a kitchen and a separate sleeping area. Something that Expedia had said wasn't available, and would have likely been too expensive if it had. "We're upgrading you to a one-bedroom", the woman informed me. I had to fight to keep myself from yelling out loud in jubilation.

A simple coincidence, undoubtedly. The type of adjustment that happens every day for all sorts of people in similar or not so similar situations, truly. A minor blip on the radar of life on earth which runs the gamut from the most horrible man-made atrocities and natural disasters to the relatively undisturbed lives of folks simply minding their own business. God certainly has plenty of other things that He can and is focusing on. But the God I've learned about and experienced is big enough to keep the universe moving while -from time to time - adjusting things just the tiniest, ittiest-bittiest fraction so that His love is tangible in unexpected ways.

Not because I deserve it, or because I'm nice or whatever other explanation American Christianity might want to assert. And not in demonstration of a love for me that He does not hold for those who at that same moment were dying of hunger, of hatred, of disease, of war. I can't account for that stunning disparity. Or more accurately, I can account for it in part because of sin and it's effects in the world. The small kindness of a loving God in one person's life does not imply that the person who suffers is not equally loved. Someday, should the tables be reversed, I will be expected - and I pray the faith in that moment - to praise God in the midst of my suffering, my loss, my illness, my death. It makes the praise and thanks I give Him now in the midst of blessings great and small that much more precious to me, because it's so easy and delightful to do so.

I pray that the love of God that destroys the power of death itself is perceived, felt, and greeted with praise and thanksgiving by each one of you today and every day.