I must preface this blog entry by saying that I know God is at work in our lives at all times. I know He is blessing us even when we can't recognize His blessings.
In saying this, though, I have to say that yesterday was an incredible day. God was so clearly working in my life. His blessings were poured out on me from the start of the day to the end.
It started yesterday morning. I'm not a morning person and dread the sound of my alarm clock. My poor husband has become all too accustomed to my "snooze" tendencies. However, yesterday morning he was at Bible study, which meant theoretically I could snooze to my heart's content without feeling bad about it. Instead, though, the Lord woke me and enabled me to get up and get some things done around the house, and some other important things that needed to be done.
As I got in my car to go to work, I quickly remembered that I was in desperate need of gas. The light had been on for days. I often work at an office just a few blocks from our house, but yesterday I was working at an office that was across town. If you know me well, you know that I have a strong tendency to run late, and yesterday was no exception. There wasn't any extra time to stop and get gas. So I'm driving along, praying constantly that God would prevent me from running out of gas. I was convinced that I was going to end up stopped on the side of the highway, learning what it felt like for the first time to run out of gas. But I didn't run out of gas and got to work safe and sound.
My next concern was where was the nearest gas station going to be for after work. Sure, I made it, but I'm not familiar with that part of town and didn't want to worry about driving far to fill my tank. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a gas station in the parking lot of our office. Wahoo! Thank you again, Lord!!
So, I go into work and don't know what to expect. Is it going to busy? or slow? It's always nice when it's busy because it makes the day go by faster, and also because I'm sometimes paid based on the number of patients I see. If I'm at work, I want to be making as much money as possible. All this to say, there was a steady flow of patients all day, which was great. Another answered prayer.
I was supposed to get off yesterday between 5 and 5:30, but I have to wait for the replacement doctor to arrive. It's hard to explain, but I get a bit anxious when it gets close to the time I'm supposed to get off. I prefer to dilate all my patients, but that also means that if I haven't checked some dilations then I have to hang around, even though technically I can go home. So, there can be a perfect timing in which I don't have any patients that are dilating, and so when that doctor arrives, I'm free to go. Well, this was exactly what happened yesterday. Wahoo!
I walked outside and immediately rejoiced in the beauty of the day. The weather was perfect, the sun was out, and I was heading home to see my sweet Ryan. What could be better? As I got in the car, I was worried that it wouldn't start, but figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal even if it didn't because the gas station was right there. I was more than excited when my car started and I was able to drive over and fill my empty tank.
I pulled out of the gas station and began my journey home. I was thankful as I knew that my drive home would only be about 15-20 minutes. In Houston, if I had to drive across town in rush hour traffic, it could easily take an hour. Just one of those blessings of living in a smaller city.
Anyway, as I'm driving along on this two lane road, I see that two or three cars in front of me is a truck pulling a huge open trailer filled with trash. I have no clue what happened, but the truck which was in the right lane ended up jack-knifing so that the truck part ended up in the left lane facing the wrong direction, and the trailer was in the right lane. Everything on the trailer was strewn across the road.
Now let me just stop here to say that I've never really been in an accident.
So, I'm now watching the effects of this jack-knifed truck as the cars in front of me all pile into one another. By the grace of God, I avoided hitting the car in front of me. The car behind me drove off the road to keep from hitting me, but was hit by the car behind it, which then proceeded to come toward me. I watched this car coming toward me in my rearview mirror like it was all in slow motion. I realized I need to move or be hit, and I found a little area off toward the left lane that I was able to steer toward so I didn't get hit.
I was then sitting in the middle of like six cars that were all in a wreck. How does that happen? A six car pile up, and car number three escapes the accident. I can't really explain it, but it just didn't make sense. Once I was able to get to the side of the road, I got out and walked around my car. I didn't feel like I got hit, but I didn't know how in the world I couldn't have. Praise God, the old Honda was ok!
I had been on the phone with Ryan shortly before the accident and knew he had left to go running with Wally. I tried calling him, but he had already left and didn't have his phone. Thank you, Lord, because when I called my mom, she was able to answer. I was pretty shaken up, so I was so blessed to have someone to comfort me. She was so sweet and talked to me as I drove home.
That night, Ryan and I had a great heart to heart about what God is calling us to do and what that's going to look like. We still don't know for sure, but I was reminded of the beauty of communication in marriage. I think it's sad that failure to communicate is such an issue in marriages, when there's nothing I enjoy more than talking to Ryan.
Anyway, that night I experienced yet another blessing. We have been praying for one of our dear friends for such a long time. She's like a sister to us, and we've been praying that she would come to know the Lord. I talked to her yesterday, and God seems to be really moving in her heart, and she's getting involved in Bible studies and spending time in His precious Word. Words can't begin to express how excited we are for her. Sweet friend, if you read this, know that we will continue to pray for you. We pray that you will learn ever more who God is in His Word and that knowing Him would cause you to love Him and to thirst for Him as we thirst for water.
Later that night, some precious friends of ours, the Roberts, arrived for the weekend. We met them in Houston, but then we moved to Louisville, and they moved to Louisiana. It's been so great to keep in touch with them and to hear how God is working in their lives. There's a possiblity too, that God may bring them here for Brian to go to seminary.
It was a wonderful day. God is good. I do want to make note here, though, that God would be no less good had I run out of gas on the way to work, had a slow day and had to stay late at work, totaled my car on the way home, etc.
He is good and constant. I praise God that we can call upon Him and know Him so intimately. That He loves me enough to care about the small details of our lives. That He longs for us to know Him.
