Plumber Bible Study

I had a plumber out to the house today to root out a pipe. Two plumbers actually. The first told us the pipe was full of roots (no surprise) and then wanted to charge us $1200 to put a camera down the pipe (why?) and then replace any portion of the pipe that was damaged. The second guy rooted out the pipe and fixed the problem for $90 and no fuss.

As he worked we chatted. I told him my husband's name was Peleg, and like a lot of people he thought it was Pele like the soccer player. I explained it was Peleg with a G on the end and that it was an old Hebrew name, appearing in the Bible. The guy tried to think but couldn't remember where. I told him it was in Genesis 10, one of the generations between Noah and Abraham (also in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke). It turned out the guy actually knew his Bible very well. As an adult he had heard a call from God to go back to school and he had studied three years at Loyola Marymount and received a certificate in Biblical Studies. He told me about his extensive involvement as a lay minister in his Parish, leading Bible study and encouraging others in various lay ministries.

It was moving to me to hear this man's stories, of his very personal and close relationship with God, of his sense of God's love and abundance in his life and his sense of being called to bring that sense of God to others, both through the church and in practical acts of help and charity. His faith helped me connect again with my own sense of faith, not through theology but through the heart. He cleared out a blocked place in my spiritual pipe for no extra charge.