I had a doctor appointment about an hour’s drive away. My car broke down as I was at the toll booth getting off the toll road. That has to be the worst spot ever to break down. I managed to turn the car back on and limp to the doctor’s office. The car died 4 more times over the next 2.1 miles, but I made it to the doctor’s office parking lot. Over these last 2.1 miles, I laid my hand on the dashboard and prayed over my car in Jesus’ name. The answer to my prayer would come in a strange way.
I checked in with the receptionist and she let me know I was an hour early. The person who booked my appointment gave me the wrong time zone when telling me the appointment time. So, I waited. I saw the receptionist reading a book so I thought to ask what she was reading, but I didn’t want to be rude. She initiated chit chat with me so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask about the book. She said it was a Christian fiction novel. So I struck up a conversation about faith. We ended up sharing a lot of our hearts, and I told her my testimony (most of the stories I am writing about here in my blog). We cried together and she thanked me for blessing her. She told me her brother is a pastor and shared his youtube page. I haven’t listened to any of his sermons yet, but I fully expect to hear a word from God there.
So my appointment was ending and I had to figure out what to do about my car. I let my mom and siblings know I was stranded. I called a tow truck and looked for a rental car. My mom offered to drive an hour to pick me up. I called a local shop that could work on the car. Everything was going pretty well given the circumstances. I was tempted to feel bad or wallow in a situation that on the surface is easy to see as “bad”. But, I took that thought captive and said, “God, your ways are not my ways.” I had an expectation of a blessing. I didn’t know what good could possibly come from being broken down 50 miles away from home with catastrophic engine failure, but God is the God of impossible.
The tow truck came, car got towed, I waited for mom, mom showed up, we are driving home, everything is somewhat settled. I started getting sleepy so I asked mom to drive. I intended to take a nap, but as soon as I reclined the seat, there was a weird car in front of us that stopped suddenly and we nearly had a 5 car pileup on the highway. That startled me so I was up and striking up conversation with mom. I connected my phone to the bluetooth and the song “The Blessing” was queued up in apple music. That was just a strange coincidence because we had been talking about Pastor Josh Deeter’s sermon at the closing service of camp meeting. He talked about passing on the scriptures from grandparents to grandchildren or parents to children.
What happened next was just a miracle. I said, “Mom, everything Pastor Josh preached is literally what has been happening in my life over the last two months.” I opened my email to read something I had written for my children. I had been working on a devotional for my children, to begin teaching them about the scriptures. I wanted to focus on helping my children become integrated people, knowing and understanding how to share their hearts and feelings and thoughts. So I used Deuteronomy 6:5 as the beginning basis. I read this email to my mom, and I wept. I said, “I wrote this email on June 13th.” I shared the date of the email to emphasize the timing of what has been happening in my life and connect it to Pastor Josh’s sermon. She said, “June 13th is my parent’s anniversary.” 😭 She then said, “‘The Blessing’ song was sung at mom’s funeral.”
If my car had not broken down, I would never have had that talk in the car with my mom and thus missed this beautiful blessing. I thank God.