The Ice Machine

I was in a tool store a few years ago. It is gone now. If it were still there I could show you exactly where I was standing when this happened.

I was looking at an air compressor. It was a small store and I was the only customer. The man at the counter asked if I had any questions. I quipped, “What is the meaning of life?”

I told him I was just kidding, but it is as if the question opened up for a deep conversation. His wife had died a few years earlier (I imagine she would have been in her 50s). He wanted to talk about life and death and meaning. When he found out I was a pastor he was even more ready to share his story.

He was (and still is) a man of faith. His faith was rocked when his wife was given a terminal diagnosis. Her attitude kept him centered. She was a strong Christian and as she was dying she wanted him to be strong too.

I cannot recall her disease. I do know that in the last weeks she could not eat. The only item she could stomach was ice chips. She loved them. The hospital they were in served the soft kind of ice that you find at places like Sonic.

The decision was made to send her home. There was nothing else to be done and she wanted to die at her own house. When they had everything ready at home they soon discovered the ice from their freezer was not nearly as enjoyable. The hospital ice was greatly missed.

About that time the doorbell rang. A neighbor asked if they could do anything. The husband (I wish I recalled his name) responded that they needed soft ice. He wanted to give his wife anything at all to soothe her. The neighbor responded, “My brother is an executive for an ice machine company. I will see what I can do.”
As the two of us stood in the tool store, I began to cry. He was crying too retelling the story. The next day an ice machine was delivered to the house for his dying bride to enjoy.

No, she wasn’t cured. She headed to Heaven a bit early. But her husband saw that God could still provide comfort for little things. It was a Big thing to him. It was a Big thing to her. And to me as well.