Mysterious Ways

   I had a job come in recently that I just dreaded doing. There was something about it that made me want to put it aside until everything else was done and I could give it my undivided attention. Even that wasn’t enough.
   It entailed printing on a piece of white cotton material 72 inches by 42 inches. That’s way too big to fit in our printing machine. Even if I could fit it in there, lining up the letters would be a nightmare. I’d have to do it by hand; all 42 4-inch red letters, 2 6-inch blue numbers, 14 2-inch black letters. An 11-inch-tall logo had to be transferred on, too. The letters would have to be taped together in segments and pressed in our T-shirt machine one segment at a time.
  It’s pretty obvious where this is going. The number was supposed to be 49 but for some reason I had the number 42 in my head. I even put that number on a template I set up on the computer to help me with layout. That was my jersey number when I played intramural basketball back in college but I have no idea why it came to me now. It was too late when I realized my mistake. The wrong number was permanently emblazoned on 21 square feet of cloth with no way to remove it.
   With trepidation I called my customer. If she was upset, she didn’t show it as we tried to come up with solutions. I offered one that required her to return to the fabric store and purchase a piece of blue material the same color as the number. Since this was going to be part of a football fan's blanket, I suggested she cut the blue fabric into the shape of a football and I could put a white number 49 on it. She could then sew it over my mistake. She loved the idea. I carefully finished the rest of the lettering and waited for her to come in with the new material.
   Still, that number 42 persisted as I tried to iron it on yet again. Good thing she was there to correct me. It turned out being a good thing I’d made the original error, too. When she went back to the fabric store, she found the white material on sale at a substantial discount. With her original receipt in hand she was able to cover the cost of the blue material and walk out with a cash refund.
   The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways.
   A few weeks later another customer came in who’s son also plays on the same team. She’d seen the finished blanket at a game that Friday night and wanted to know if I’d make one for her.
   I told her absolutely not.