What Faith Can Do ~ A Suzanne Cotton Story

 What Faith Can Do

or

“Don’t Let Anyone Burst Your Bubble”

Recorded by B. Suzanne Cotton

This is a true story that actually happened to me:

On a Saturday morning, October 29, 2005, my husband, Bobby, and I were enjoying some quiet time together.  We were sitting on the couch in our bedroom, sipping coffee and discussing some teaching articles written by a minister, Andrew Wommack, that I had printed off from his website.  At 08:48 a.m., the telephone rang and registered the Caller I.D. number as a local number in a small town, considered to be a “bedroom community,” about 10 miles south of our home.  I answered the telephone and said, “Hello.”

 

Back in those days, there were few cell phones, so almost everyone still had a home phone, and phone books were printed and sent out every year with names and numbers of all local businesses and of residents living in the area, unless a person had an unlisted number, which we did.  There was hardly any spam or robocalls back then, so if you received a phone call, it was most likely from someone you knew

A frantic female voice blurted into the telephone, “Do you have a bubble machine?”, referring to a somewhat large, plug-in machine that one pours some liquid soap into and then it blows out bubbles high into the air.  I did not recognize the voice, but I did have several friends from that area who call me fairly regularly, but I could not remember anyone whose phone number matched the last four digits on the Caller I.D.  However, I answered truthfully, “Yes, I have a bubble machine.” 

The woman exclaimed joyfully, “Oh, thank God!  You were my last hope.  I’ve called every store in the area, even the rental stores, and everyone I know, but no one has a bubble machine.  I was told to either try X---- (a larger city 50 miles away), or the bridal shops in town, but I don’t have time to make a trip to X----.  You see, my 3-year-old daughter’s birthday party is this afternoon, and my 6-year-old daughter today insists that we must have a bubble machine for her baby sister’s party.  She has faith that we will find one and has refused to believe otherwise.  Right now, she has her fingers crossed like she does when she is praying to get what she wishes for.

I said to the woman that I would have to go to our shop (referring to the workshop, a large building on our property that we use for storage and where my husband keeps his vast array of tools) to get the bubble machine, as it had been stored there since right after the tornado.

We hadn’t used it since, I told her, but I thought it still ought to work.

[There had been a tornado in the year 2000 in the city where my husband and I reside, and our house had been destroyed (with us in the house at the time, although we were not injured at all).  After retrieving any possessions in the home that we could salvage, we transferred those items to our outside building that we jokingly called our “shop”, that had only suffered one broken window and was about 100 feet northeast of our house.  Our bubble machine was one of those items.  We had to have what remained of our house completely demolished and removed; then my husband, who works in home construction, subsequently rebuilt the entire house, completing it in 2002.]

The woman asked, “Can I just rent the machine, or do I need to buy it?”

I thought that was an unusual question for a friend to ask since I am always quick to loan anything I have, so I replied, “Why, neither!  You can just use it – or borrow it – if it still works.”

She asked when she could come to get it.  I said, “Well, my husband and I are in the middle of a Bible study, which we’d like to finish.  After that, I need to shower, get dressed, put on my makeup, and then try to find the bubble machine.  How about in a couple of hours?”

She seemed shocked at my answer and said rather uncertainly, “Well…okay, I guess.”

I could tell she was surprised about my answer and my request to give me a couple of hours before she came.  I, too, was somewhat puzzled because as I talked to the woman, I could tell she was desperate to get a hold of this machine, and for some reason thought I had one, so she must know someone I knew who had told her to call me.  Yet I still couldn’t place her voice or figure out which of my friends she knew.  Tentatively, I asked her, “Who are you?’

She replied, “I’m Mary Smith (I’m not using her real name for privacy purposes).”  

I said, “I don’t think I know you.”

She didn’t act surprised at that, but did say, “Why do you ask?’

I said, “Well, I’m trying to figure out who you are or who told you to call me, especially since I’m not listed in the phone book.”

She adamantly replied, “Oh, yes, you are.  I’ve got the phone book open right in front of me.”

I thought to myself, Why the nerve of this lady.  I don’t even know her; she is demanding a favor from me, and now she is arguing with me about something I know to be true.

The woman continued, “Yes, here it is.  Local Bridal Shop; telephone number XXX-0169.”

I said, “This is not Local Bridal Shop, and that’s not my telephone number.”

Obviously confused, she exclaimed, “Well, then, who are you?’

I replied, “My name is Suzanne Cotton.  This is a private residence with an unlisted telephone number.  I live on X--- Street, and my phone number is XXX-0016.”

She said, “Oh, my!  I have dialed the wrong number.  I thought I was talking to someone at the Bridal Shop.  I am so sorry!”

Now it finally made sense.  She had dialed the wrong number – probably by pressing on the zero a bit too long, which entered the zero twice.  When I had answered the phone call and said that we did have a bubble machine and it was in the shop, she thought I was referring to the Bridal Shop.

I told her that she could still borrow my bubble machine, as I doubted she could find one anywhere in the area, anyway, and this type of item usually has to be special-ordered, even if just to rent.  I gave her directions to my house, and two hours later, she did come and pick up the bubble machine.

And, yes, I did find the bubble machine under a pile of boxes in our workshop, where it had been stored for 5 years.  I even had several bottles of soap bubbles for the machine, and it still worked perfectly.

Later that day, just for fun, I called the Local Bridal Shop and asked if they had a bubble machine.  A young-sounding clerk answered the telephone.  She said she had never seen one there and was doubtful that they had such a thing.  I heard her confer with another clerk in the background, who also expressed doubt about them having such an item.  The clerk got back on the line and told me that the owner of the shop was out of town on a buying trip and was the only one who would know.  She told me that I was welcome to call back on Monday and talk to the owner about it then.

Monday would have been too late for the birthday party that was scheduled for that Saturday afternoon.  Did Mary Smith really call the wrong number?  I don’t think so.

In the years since, I have found that there really are no coincidences.  A child’s earnest prayer, even offered up at the last moment, was answered.  Bubble Machines were not the rage back then, and I had only seen one in my life when Bobby and I, in 1999, took a two-hour trip to go out of our state, and stumbled across a shop in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, that had one on the sidewalk outside their storefront.  On an impulse, I went into the shop and asked if I could buy their machine.  I had cash, and they agreed to sell it.  We used the bubble machine when we got married in our home shortly thereafter, and had friends and the pastor over.  It was quite a hit then, but having served its purpose, we hardly ever used it again, if ever.  It was just a few months later that the tornado happened in our city, where the Real Estate agent had proudly told us that no tornado had ever touched down in this city in the 142 years of recorded history for the city.  How ironic that our house was the first house struck by the tornado when it arrived in the year 2000 and went through the entire downtown area before exiting the city. 

God always has a silver lining for everything that happens in our lives.  My husband rebuilt our home on the original site but made it a bit larger and far more beautiful.  The insurance company paid us an amount more than what we paid for the property when we moved here, which made it possible for us to rebuild.  Although we lost the structure of the house, almost all our possessions were salvageable.  When the tornado showed up, it was a huge, black cloud in the sky overhead that suddenly touched down in the southwest corner of our property and headed straight for the house.  Bobby, hearing the first faint sound of the city’s storm siren, looked out a kitchen window, saw this happen, and told me to run to the master bathroom, that a tornado was coming.  We both (and our two dogs) barely made it there before the tornado hit.  Panes of door and window glass were broken out and shattered, and large sheets of glass became airborne, heading straight for us, then dropped to the floor abruptly, less than six inches from us.  Not a single hair on our head (nor the fur on our dogs) was touched.  It all happened so fast that we had no time to fear.  And the Word of our Lord tells us not to fear, anyway.

Not only were we spared, but we came out ahead in the long run.  Something that seemed insignificant – such as a bubble machine – was preserved and still worked perfectly.  How did God know 6 years in advance that one day a 6-year-old girl would pray for a bubble machine for her 3-year-old sister’s birthday party, when the younger sister had not even been born yet at that time?  God is in the details, no matter how small.  Even in the matter of phone numbers, how did we get assigned a phone number when we moved here that was only one number off from the Bridal Shop’s phone number? 

Needless to say, the bubble machine was a major success at the birthday party.  The 3-year-old sister was awestruck by the bubbles coming out of the machine.  The 6-year-old girl was quite pleased, but not surprised, that a bubble machine was found, regardless of such short notice.  A child’s prayer is powerful and full of faith.  God honors those types of prayer.  And God knows the end from the beginning.  Indeed, our God is an awesome God!

Suzanne Cotton

Shared with Sheryl York on March 23, 2026 with approval to share it with others.