Brett had agreed to do a quick favor for the afternoon meeting at church. He pulled up to the church, made a quick trip inside to turn on the lights then returned to the car. He looked forward to an afternoon with a camera exploring an old church cemetery we had discovered earlier in the week. As he pulled the car forward and turned, the rear tire caught the curb. Not giving it a second thought he drove the short distance home to pick up the camera. Looking forward to the rest of the afternoon he stepped out of the car to discover the rear tire no longer retained it round shape. In fact, the bottom resembled a pancake.
A closer look revealed the tire could not be repaired and would need to be replaced. The dollar signs multiplied in Brett’s head. We had just put on a full set of new tires, setting our bank account back by $800. Now we would need to spend another $200 to replace the piece of useless expensive rubber. Disgusted with the situation, Brett decided to wait until the next day to change the tire.
After a cup of coffee and a shower Brett summoned Colby from his cave in the basement to help him change the tire. In about ten minutes these two men of the house replaced the useless piece of rubber with the ubiquitous donut. Our once cool looking Subaru Outback suddenly looked a little lame.
Just before dark Brett and I decided we needed to run to the store to pick up a few groceries and a movie or two from Redbox. We took the back road to the store. The back road is one of those fun, narrow, hilly, roads where when you go just the right speed at the top of the hills your tummy will tumble and small children riding in the back of the car will squeal with delight and grown-up mom’s riding in the front seat have been known to give the occasional giggle. But, this trip Brett drove at a slower pace because of the not so sweet donut spinning on the rear of the car. We meandered up and down the hills enjoying our country drive. As we topped one hill we were surprised to see the backs of two girls just ahead of us walking in our lane! Brett applied the brakes and the girls looked behind them in apparent shocked surprise, giggled and hurried to cross to the other side of the road.
I voiced my opinion about air-headed teenage girls who walked with their backs to traffic in the middle of the lane on a narrow country road at dusk. I rambled on in amazement that they didn’t even apologize, just giggled and walked to the other side of the road while Brett slammed on the brakes to avoid them. I wound up my tirade mentioning that it was a good thing we weren’t traveling at our usual tummy tumbling speed at the top of the hill.
This story happened almost two weeks ago and it crossed my mind to write about it, but I didn’t have an ending for it. Today, since I have run short of things to write about, I searched my mind for previous experiences and chose this one despite still not knowing how I would end the story. But, after pausing for a moment at the end of writing my experience to think about how this could be applied to my spiritual life this thought crossed my mind:
God knows everything. He knows everything that will happen in the future. If I stop to think about it, it’s not just the big things He knows about, He also knows all the small things that will happen. He knew those two girls would be walking down the road on the back side of a hill at the same time that we would be driving down that road on an errand. He knows how much Aspen and I like to take those hills at tummy tumbling speeds. While I don’t like parting with an extra $200 to replace a damaged tire, I would much rather do that than have run into those air-headed teenage girls.
God could have created a different way to avoid the situation, He could have delayed our trip to the store or prompted the girls to walk on the other side of the road. But, instead we got a flat tire and drove down the road at a slower than usual speed. Maybe, just maybe, God was showing me that He is in all situations whether they go the way I think they should or if they make no sense to me at all.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.… Proverbs 3:5,6
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
