It all began when my husband was away on business, and we were chatting late at night on the phone about the day’s events. As all husbands-who-take-frequent-business-trips know, as soon as The Husband leaves, The Wife will proceed to hear loud noises in the garage in the middle of the night. Scary, mysterious noises only happen when The Husband is gone, because when they’re home, their snoring drowns out regularly-scheduled scary noises. I know this.

As it happens, I hear my Scary Noise for the night while I happen to be talking on the phone to my husband. Functioning as the concerned patriarch that he is, he tells me, “Go look and see what it is.”

Right…I was just about to do that. Leaving the baseball bat, kitchen knife, and Nurf gun safely in the house, I commence to the garage armed with only the cordless phone on my ear. I rest in the fact that at least The Robber is too stupid to cut the phone line, so my five foot frame might stand a chance against a stupid prowler. I’ve seen The Karate Kid.

It’s also comforting that my husband, while several thousand miles away, might hear a quick description of the perpetrator and have no questions about the nature of my demise. I always try to find the positive in a situation.

So, I get to the garage, turn on the lights, and note that the sprinkler system is on. The pump is running, and that’s where the noise is coming from. Strange– as the system isn’t programmed to come on at this time nor on this day. Furthermore, the system is in the “Off” position. I tell this to my husband. I affirm my sanity as he questions the legitimacy of me teaching the children how to diagram sentences when I apparently don’t know how to spell O-F-F.

Husband: So, just turn it off.

Me: It IS off.

Husband: Obviously, it’s not.

Me: I know it’s not, but it is!

He arrives home later in the week, only to confirm my statement. The sprinkler system is spooked. It is a certifiable mystery. So my husband—who programs rocket launch pads for a living, right?—reprograms the sprinkler.

The sprinklers woke me up at 3:10 a.m. this morning, and I’ve been awake ever since. He promised to smash it tonight.

Some things in life are just a mystery. So many things don’t make any sense to me, especially when I consider some of God’s hard providences in my life. Even as the years go by, I still can’t make sense out of some of His provisions. The Bible tells us that “now we see through a glass dimly.” As is His way, sometimes He tells us “why” now, and sometimes He waits until we meet Him on the other side. In either case, while trivial sprinklers and the more concerting, hard providences of His hand remain mysterious, the one thing that is for sure is His goodness. And that is what we hold onto during the dark noises in the night.

How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.
Psalm 31:19