The Garage Door

For the first time in over a year, I parked in my driveway last night. And for the first time in several years, I entered my house through the garage. You see, our garage door opener has been broken for a long time now. It's one of those things that I took for granted when we had, missed for a while when it first broke, and then just "made do" without it. When I was tired of entering through the back door and getting mauled by the dogs, I started parking out in front of my house.

A working garage door, while an awesome convenience to have, has not been a priority for our family. So, when our sweet friend, who's business is garage doors, stopped by after a job in our neighborhood and insisted on looking at it, we were grateful. He worked on it for a while--all with spare parts he had in his truck, but, being parked in our driveway proved lucrative for him and he had 2 other jobs that came up. That was a few weeks ago. Yesterday, he had some time in the middle of the day and came over and finished the job. He even installed a keyless box for us--not that I've ever locked myself out of the house--hahahaha!

The garage door got me to thinking about the other things I think I need, but could really do without. There's a line in the movie "The Book of Eli" about humans not knowing what was really important until it was gone. How many times do I take clean, running water for granted? In fact, I often complain about the taste of it. How often do I wish we could eat out at a restaurant instead of being thankful we had enough food last night to have leftovers at home tonight? Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on giving up electricity or air conditioning any time soon, but I do hope that every time I push the garage door button, and it opens, I remember what a sweet gift it was from a friend, and am thankful that I live in a place where I am blessed with so many things I don't need.