There's a story my mom tells about when I was a small kid - asleep in the back seat on the way home from church one night. I'm kinda fuzzy about the details, but I think it goes along these lines that we were driving home (before seatbelts were mandatory) and I was laying down in the seat. Somehow, my dad missed a stop sign and we went through a dead-end - stopping short of all of us being killed. I raised up from the back floorboard where I'd been thrown in my sleep and scolded him for driving so poorly. After the fear of what had almost happened had subsided, the humor in my ignorance of the matter was acknowledged. I had no idea how near death I'd (or we'd) come, and I was bent on complaining about my dad's poor driving. (I assure that was not the first or the last time I had that complaint.)
They still talk about that moment and how funny it was that I had no idea what the situation was when I raised up to complain that I'd been awakened by a crash to the floor-board - miraculously, not through the windshield.
I said all that to lead to this. Last night while sitting in church, I was reminded of that little story while a friend of ours preached. Bro. Jeff Hensley preached last night about "Things that cannot be shaken." The first thing he mentioned was that the throne of God is never shaken by our circumstances.
In the process of that thought, he told a story of a sweet little lady (one of my favorite little ladies) who attends our church - Sis. Powell. The story he told was that years and years ago when her children were little, on their way home from church, they happened up on a bad curve which she was not prepared for because of a distraction in the car. She knew she was not going to be able to make the curve, so began to slam on brakes and prepare her children for impact. (My recollection of preparing for that meant an arm thrown across your chest or neck - depending on how tall you were...I've had that more than once, also)
To her surprise as she skidded straight through the curve, her car landed upon a little dirt road that went straight - instead of the black top that curved. A little dirt road that she'd never noticed before. There she was able to stop her car - and I'm sure recollect herself - and readjust her bearings. She was able, from that little detour, to turn her car around and go the way she'd intended.
In Bro. Jeff's thoughts, he mentioned that he somehow could see that somewhere back in time, God saw that a little mother would need that little dirt road to spare the life of herself and her children.
I've dwelled on that thought more than once today. I'd not heard this story before, but have heard my share along the same lines. As another friend would say - "Even so," I would probably be overwhelmed if I really knew how many times God has prepared the "little dirt roads" in my life. That's just one of the wonderful advantages of being a child of the Almighty who can see my life's roads way before I ever reach them....and his thoughts are much higher than mine.
Think about it. The next time you have that "barely missed it" moment, or "that was close" moment - acknowledge the "little dirt road" and be thankful for it.
My mom always declared that being stuck in traffic was always for a purpose. More than once after having to wait - sometimes hours - in traffic on the interstate, Mom would always remind us that God may be keeping us from harm by keeping us there. There have been times within an hour of leaving the traffic jams we'd come up on a wreck or something and she'd say - "see that could have been us - had we been just a bit sooner." They say seeing is believing - therefore I believed.
When we live with the rushing "always gotta move" mindset, it's easy to miss the "little dirt roads." I think we'd all be much more thankful if we only had a clue just how many of those little roads have been prepared just for our safe keeping - and most of the time, never even know that they're there.
Just thought I'd mention it......I was thankful for the reminder.
No comments:
Post a Comment