The Miracle of the Kitchen Cupboards, Part 2

(Part of the kitchen cupboards. To the left was the fridge with an overhead cupboard and a then there was a full length pantry cupboard. We purchase the stove at a church rummage sale for $25.)

Story continued.....


For a while, it didn’t seem possible that I could ever have kitchen cupboards. Then, I remembered prayer. At first, I felt guilty about praying for something as superficial as kitchen cupboards. After all, I had a roof over my head and food to eat. There were lots of people in the world who would have thought our electricity, telephone service (even if it was an eight-party line), and running water made us wealthy beyond belief. I remember kneeling down in the living room and praying, “Heavenly Father I know there are people in Africa who don’t have enough to eat, but if I don’t get kitchen cupboards soon I am going to go crazy! Please help us find a way to get kitchen cupboards…..”


While I was coping with the mess of a cupboard-less kitchen my sister, Bev, and her husband, Joe, a Captain in the U .S. Coast Guard, were stationed in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. According to Bev, the only thing noteworthy about Elizabeth City was its proximity to the Great Dismal Swamp and a factory that made cabinets. Bev once mentioned to me that the cabinet company that sold their “seconds” out of a shop not too far from her house. “Seconds” were cabinets that didn’t quite make the grade as far as the manufacturer was concerned. For example, the finish on “seconds” was not up to the manufacturer’s specifications, or a “second” might have a small nick in it.

An imperfect finish or a nick seemed like a small matter to us, having no cupboards at all. Wilbur drew up a plan of the kitchen with measurement and explanations of the cabinets we would need and sent the drawing to Bev. She visited the shop on my behalf and found there was next to nothing in the shop that day. But the shop’s proprietor told her to keep checking back. The proprietor was dubious about the prospect of finding all the cabinets we needed for our kitchen, but he thought Bev might find one here and one there if she looked in from time to time. Overall, the prospect of rounding up enough cabinets from this source was not encouraging. For some inexplicable reason, though, I felt my prayer was heard. A faint hope and a spark of faith whispered to me that we would somehow get kitchen cabinets.

One day a few weeks later, Bev dropped in again at the cabinet shop. The man running the shop said, “Well you picked the right day to come in! I just got in a big shipment of cabinets. I have a list of people waiting for cabinets. Every one of these pieces has been spoken for on my list, but since you are here, I’ll let you have anything you want.” Bev found every type of cabinet we needed for our kitchen for $600.00. This was a miracle. A complete, unadulterated miracle equal to the parting of the Red Sea and walking on water. A miracle.

Next, we had the problem of how to get the cabinets from Elizabeth City, NC to Montana. The cost of shipping would easily exceed the price of the cabinets. We would have to save for another year come up with shipping costs, even if the economy improved and we had more work.

Miracle number two occurred. Bev and Joe were being transferred from Elizabeth City to Alaska. As is common for service families, they were coming to visit Mom and Dad and staying in our city for a few weeks between their tours of duty. The cabinets were still technically Spoja property. So they were packed with the Spoja belongings and delivered free of charge.

I will never forget the Saturday that Wilbur, with the help of our neighbor Roger Nummerdor (who just happened to be a carpenter) installed my kitchen cupboards. We tried to pay Roger, but he just waved any idea of money off. Being a native Montanan, Roger would no more take money for helping out a neighbor than he would insist on pay for helping his Mom change a flat tire.

At the end of that Saturday I stood back and admired my wonderful, complete kitchen. Counters, cupboards, a new stainless steel kitchen sink; this was luxury of the highest order! I could clean my kitchen and it looked clean! I had a place to chop vegetables. Opulence! Lavishness! If the finish was not up to par or any nicks existed in my kitchen cupboard “seconds,” I was blind to these circumstances. I enjoyed having those cupboards every hour I lived in that house.

I suppose there are some who would say my kitchen cupboards were the result of coincidence. To me this is as ludicrous as saying the breath-taking orchid, exquisite yellow bell, or unique shooting star exist merely as a result of evolution. I know that cannot be true. Yellow bells and shooting stars bear witness of a caring, loving Supreme Being who delights in showering us with blessings of all kinds, not just those that sustain our lives. My kitchen cupboards bear the same witness. A struggling young family of four living in a daylight basement house during a recession, we had the necessities of life and more. But Heavenly Father was not a disinterested observer in our lives who would rather not help us. He is not chintzy, and His help was not limited to assisting us with the necessities only. He had both love and compassion for the young mother who was struggling with the ugliness and disorder of block and board shelves. When that young mother prayed, He answered her prayer.