The Crazy Story of Our Lawnmower

In our pursuit of the "American Dream" Dani and I bought about four acres of property. About one whole acre of that is occupied by two things: buildings and lawn. Lots, and lots of lawn. The lawn isn't flat by any means, and, moreover, it's interrupted in numerous spots by trees, bushes, stones, and other large objects. So when it comes to mowing it can be quite a chore.

When we first bought our property, my grandfather generously gave us an old Lawn-boy push-mower—the very same mower that I cut my teeth on as a teenager helping him take care of his grass. The thing was pretty old and it smoked like a chimney, and with only an 18-inch blade it took about four or five hours to mow all of our property. As hard as it was mowing everything on that ancient little push-mower, it was harder on my body. But that didn't matter, because a new lawnmower wasn't in the budget. So, alas, I resolved to just continue to use that little Lawn-boy until I had run it into the ground... that is, if I didn't have a heart attack first.

Dani and I had started to pray about our lawnmower situation, asking God to help us find a good deal on a lawnmower that would A) be large enough and durable enough to handle all of our property, and B) have a decent amount of horsepower to take care of some of the other tasks we had in mind, like gardening, hauling leaves and wood, and pushing snow.

Now, we're not sure which one of us prayed the following—Dani remembers praying it, but I also remember laying in bed next to her one night, staring up at the ceiling in our bedroom, just comically calling out to God, "And Lord, if you could just GIVE US a new lawnmower that would be awesome!"

Two weeks later.

I was sitting at my desk at work when I got a call from Lowe's. The gentleman on the other line said he apologized for the inconvenience, but they were very busy with deliveries and wouldn't be able to deliver my lawn mower until the following week.

"Um, but I didn't order a lawn mower," I said.

"Oh," came the reply. "Is this Jacob Grant?" He read off my address.

"Yeah."

"Well, I've got a brand new John Deere D-140 here with your name on it."

He went on to explain that the lawn mower had been bought and paid for, but he didn't know by whom. We arranged a delivery date and time and then I hung up, still a bit confused. I called Lowe's directly and asked to speak with the gentleman again just to be sure it wasn't some kind of scam, but, no, it wasn't. There was indeed a brand new $2,000 John Deere D-140 riding lawnmower, bought and paid for, sitting at Lowe's with my name on it. Twenty-two horse power. Forty-inch cutting radius. Full length welded steel frame. *insert Tim Allen grunting here* In short, it was a beautiful lawn mower, and it was more than enough to handle everything we had in mind.

We never found out who gave it to us, but we have our suspicions. Ultimately we decided that since the gift was given anonymously it would be disrespectful to the giver to attempt to find out who it was.

In the end, we have to give God the glory. We prayed, and He answered. What's interesting to note is that our prayers weren't any kind of long elegant discourse. We weren't bowed on our knees, and I don't even think my eyes were closed.

"Lord, if you could just GIVE US a new lawnmower that would be awesome!" That's what was said. We simply cast our cares upon Him, stepped back, and let Him work. As usual He chose to work through His servants by impressing upon someone's heart to meet this need for us. It was awesome to be the recipients of such a generous gift, but even more awesome to be able to tell this story again and again and give the glory to God the provider.

Keep pinchin' :-)