Saga of the Insurance Check

This story started a while back, only I didn't realize it until the other week.  To be exact, it was Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, the one where we didn't make it to Savannah so I started cleaning some forgotten piles of stuff, when I knowingly joined the saga.  I hate to even tell on myself like this, but I'm not the best at some paperwork.  Now if I know it is important or something due, that is one thing, but random mail, not so much. So I had this pile of random mail in a box that I thought I should eventually sort before discarding, but it was in a very, very low priority stack of stuff.  So I started sorting and opening this stuff.  Well amongst the mail was one of those notices from my insurance company.  You know, the boring summaries they send every so often showing what dates you went to a doctor, what you paid, what was owed, what they covered, blah, blah, blah.  I figure if I owe the doctor more money, I'm sure to hear from them.  So don't keep up with these summaries on a regular basis.  I open the evelope to find the summary AND a check for $195!!  Apparently, I had overpaid and they were refunding me.  I thought I had been paying a higher co-pay then I was supposed to, but the doctors office assured me that is what I owed, so I paid it, they passed it on to my insurance, who was trying to give it back.  Excited because that is a lot of money for me to get so unexpectedly and it was perfect timing for our trip to Savannah, I deposited the check, checked online the next day and sure enough, there it was.  Whoo hoo.  Came back from Savannah this weekend and went to work on Monday.  Monday night I come home and check the mail.  In the mail is a letter from my bank stating that the check was returned and the amount removed from my account.  Yikes!!  At this point I'm thinking I would have rather not had the check at all then think I have it, spend it and then find out I don't.  Plus I'm pretty ticked.  Yesterday I tried to call the insurance company to find out what in the world was going on and to let them know I wasn't happy with this situation.  After about 10 minutes of that crazy automated crap, where the machine kept mistaking me saying "myself" for "spouse", I finally get to a real person.  At that same point I look down at the check and see the date and the words, "must be deposited within 12 mths."  And it was dated October 2008.  Arrrggggg.  Simply told the guy on the phone never mind and hung up.  Then sat there trying to figure out how to kick myself!!  Here I had had this check for 13 months and never knew it, and by the time I realized I had it, I was one month too late to cash it.

Woke up this morning still feeling frustrated over it and then thought about the blessings that the Lord has for us that we just ignore.  It isn't that He isn't trying to bless us, but that we don't take the time to see what He has or to accept it.  If I had just known I had the check I would have utilized it, I didn't purposely decide that the insurance company needed the money more then me.  With the Lord, it again isn't that I purposely shun what He has to offer, but that I don't take the time to really look at what is right there in front of me and available to me.  You can rest assured that the next envelope I get from my insurance company will be opened and read!  Yet, I have God's Word and how often do I get so busy it gets pushed lower down on my priority pile, to be read at a more convenient time.  I wonder how much regret I will have when I get to heaven and see all the missed opportunities and blessings.  So busy with life here on earth that I forget about the things eternal.  And with the insurance check, it was money I had already paid, but with Christ, it is totally free, not a refund, but paid in full with His own blood.  It doesn't cost us anything!

Tonight at 7:00 pm, 12Stone Church is offering it's O2 service.  For a couple of hours Christians can gather together to pray, praise, worship and celebrate communion.  It is a time of oxygen for the soul.  Tonight, I pray that I go ready to listen and take the refreshing that He has for me and in turn that I will praise Him for His faithfulness, grace, mercy and love - all freely given, ready to be accepted!

John 4:10 - Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."