God and a Dishwasher

Last week, Caitlin and I made the decision to purchase a dishwasher. Ours was starting to rust and get some of that on the dishes, and a store was running a sale on them. We found the dishwasher we wanted, and I went in ready to purchase. When I arrived, I was informed the model we had researched and looked up was no longer on sale, despite the sale extending for several more days. Disappointed, I looked at a few more that were still on sale and went home to begin researching again.

God worked within our purchase of a dishwasher. I returned the next night, annoyed that I wouldn’t be getting the dishwasher that Caitlin and I wanted. As I was walking into the store, my knee had one of those weird things that tell me I am no longer in my 20’s (or in the shape I used to consider normal) where it betrayed my body, lost strength, and started hurting. I limped back to the appliances, and the sales associate was also having knee pain. He offered me a seat, we sat down and started talking. As he was punching things into the computer to arrange for the transaction, he asked me what kind of work I did, and when I said I was a pastor he looked me straight in the eye and asked me how he could get his wife to come back to church. We talked while he finished the transaction, and it was a beautiful interruption of what I thought I was going to do that night.

On my way out of the store I ran into one of my old neighbors from living an apartment complex six years ago and his new daughter that I had never met. We made plans to reconnect again.

I think God wanted me to get this dishwasher. Even in the interruptions of my own plans (maybe even especially in them) God was and is at work. God can interrupt your plans too with opportunities to connect, to bring goodness, to be light. Take them. Even when you’re buying a dishwasher.

Written by Ben Friesen, March 2025