I was reminded this morning of something I’ve known for a long time. Something that I believed in even before I was rooted in my Faith. That everything happens for a reason. Certainly some things happen solely because of a decision we’ve made…stupid or otherwise…but some things happen regardless of what we say, do, or think. And sometimes we get mad or annoyed by the inconveniences that some occurrences cause for us, but if we can get out of our own way long enough to look at a situation objectively, we may just be able to see a glimmer of a grander plan.
My phone has a tendency to defy it’s namesake as a “smart” phone. It will randomly change the date and time, up to 5 hours ahead of the actual time which, while annoying, usually isn’t a big deal. When I set my alarm to wake up for work however, and it doesn’t go off because it’s decided to jump ahead a day and fall back 6 hours, it’s a little bigger of a deal. So, as Roo jumps up on the side of the bed to let me know it’s time to go out and potty, I swat him away and sleepily open my eyes to notice that it’s just a little too bright in the room. So I grab my phone and look at it. 1:11 am. Um…no, no it’s not. So, I put on my glasses and look at the clock across the room. It is, in fact, 7:11 am and I should be leaving my house in a mere 20 minutes to get to work on time. I may or may not have let out an expletive as I turned to get out of bed. J sweetly asked what he could do to help me, but sadly there was nothing he could do to get me ready any faster.
Fast forward to 7:45 am and I’m finally ready to walk out the door. J has gone out and started my car since it’s 34 degrees outside, I grab my lunch and my coffee, kisses goodbye and I’m off. Driving down the country road that takes me to the highway, I come up on police lights. And then a fire truck and three more police cars. An accident that appears to be blocking the entire road. The road that I have to go down to get to work. I may or may not have muttered another expletive. There are two pick-up trucks involved in this wreck. It looks as though one of them may have pulled out from a side road when there was another truck coming…and the entire front end of this big Dodge pick-up is completely smashed in. I can’t see the front of the other truck as it is facing the other direction but I can imagine. I text J to tell him what else is going wrong in my day. Fortunately only one lane was actually blocked and the police were letting the traffic through a few cars at a time. I was only delayed a couple of extra minutes.
And then, as I’m driving the rest of the way down that country road I start to think…you know, that wreck couldn’t have been there for very long…if I had woken up and left on time, that could have been me who was a part of that accident. And my car against a full-size truck would likely not have fared as well. At that moment I realized that there was a reason my alarm didn’t go off that morning, and it was more than just faulty technology. The good Lord was watching out for me and keeping me off of that road and out of harms way.
Oh, and did I also mention that there was virtually no traffic on the highway and I actually made it to work early? Yeah. I sent J a text when I got to work to let him know that I made it and that I believed that the alarm mishap was not a mere fluke, and he agreed. Thank you Jesus for protecting me this morning.
I think it’s all too often that we all get flustered and upset because things don’t go our way or as we’d planned, but in the grand scheme of things, the minutes that we may “lose” because of something that appears to be an inconvenience, may be the minutes that save our lives. Just something to think about and keep us humble as we go through another day that God has blessed us with.
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