NAILED IT!

My plate was full, as the saying goes. My husband was in the hospital, and I was trying hard to “hold life together.” I’d stopped at the grocery store for some essentials, pulling quickly into an empty spot. I didn’t straighten the wheels, which meant when I came out, the angled tire of the front driver’s side was exposed at just the right place to show the head of a huge nail. I was surprised the tire wasn’t flat.

Changing tires is not on my list of “know-how-to-do.” We don’t have “road service” insurance. But now, what to do was up to me. I decided to risk the mile drive to the local tire dealer, praying the whole way! Arriving safe (with a big Thank you, Lord), I was told I’d have an hour or more wait to have it fixed. It was a hot summer day and I had milk in the trunk. When I mentioned that need, they showed extraordinary customer TLC by “parking” the milk temporarily in their employee refrigerator. (Thank you, Lord!)

An hour-plus later, tire fixed, the employee who came with my keys remarked, “That nail went all the way through. It’s amazing your tire wasn’t flat.” (Another arrow “Thank you, Lord!”)

Twice we’ve been in wrecks that others caused, and which destroyed our car. Both incidents were stark reminders of our vulnerabilities in travel. Post-wreck, I often thought of Psalm 91, which speaks of God’s trustworthiness in dangerous situations. But I’ve learned I can’t apply that like an all-purpose bandage to every danger I encounter. Sometimes, in His sovereign will, God allows the frustration, the difficulties, even the life-endangerment.

And sometimes it’s obvious He intervenes when that might increase my faith. I needed such spiritual-boosting as my husband recovered in the hospital. Driving home with that fixed tire, I remembered the psalmist’s observation that “he will command his angels concerning you” (v. 11).

The truth is, that would have applied to my frustrations if I had come out with bags of groceries (and cold milk!) to a truly flat tire in a skinny parking place in a busy supermarket shopping center, and was stuck. Somehow, someone would have helped me in that inconvenient time and place. But I’m glad it turned out the way it did, and maybe God just needed to remind me that, as Psalm 33:18 says, that “the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him” (v. 33). Whether road hazards or the health of a loved one, He can handle it.

By the way, I later expressed my thanks to the tire crew, taking in a note with a big plate of cookies. It was the least I could do.