My Provider

Once again I am reminded that God is watching out for me and my family. Not like I had forgotten that, but His little reminders are encouraging.

Saturday, Scott and I drove up to Bowie, MD, for a surprise party for Mike, a friend and co-worker of Scott's, and his wife Katherine. Because of the party's time, we were fortunate enough to leave Leah with my parents. For the most part, the ride was uneventful; we didn't even run into typical weekend DC traffic! Just before we turned onto the residential street to get to the party, we heard something clunking underneath the car just as the engine light popped on and the AC suddenly didn't feel so cool. In the next moment, the temperature gauge shot up, also causing us some concern. By God's provision (for there's truly no other explanation), we made it to the party house.

Before heading inside, Scott popped the hood; more bad news: antifreeze was pouring out of the reservoir. Uh-oh. Even I knew that wasn't good (and I know nothing about cars). Further exploration revealed the source of the thunking we heard under the car: a belt had broken. Oh joy.

Now wouldn't you know it, but Mike's sister-in-law knows quite a bit about cars. She came out for a quick peek before Mike and Katherine were supposed to arrive, and agreed that the source of our troubles was the belt. (She also deduced that a pressure build-up popped the cap off the antifreeze reservoir, so that was an easy fix.)

Fast forward to after Mike and Katherine's arrival (because of traffic, they didn't arrive until 2, even though they were supposed to get there at 1; we had arrived shortly after 12). Scott, Mike, and Bob (Mike's brother) drove to Auto Zone and picked up the requisite belt. Then, the group of them, along with Thomasina (the sister-in-law) tried installing it... to no avail. Because they didn't have the tools they needed, they couldn't install the belt, no matter how hard they tried.

Thankfully, though, God provided another option: Eunice, Mike's mom, has AAA, and offered to call us a tow, thus saving us the cost of a tow to Woodbridge. So, at 6:41 (yes, that's the time the driver said he'd arrive), our car was loaded up on a flatbed, and we headed back home. (This was considerably later than we had originally planned on staying; initially, we figured we'd stay for a couple hours and then head home in time for dinner. So much for THAT idea!)

Thomasina commented that I was remarkably calm about all of this; she said she wouldn't be in the same situation. I explained that I knew it would all work out. Plus, I knew how fortunate we were to have this happen where and when it did.

Because of God's hand in all of this,

*our car broke down in their neighborhood instead of the interstate.
*Leah spent the day (and night, too) with my parents.
*we didn't have to stress about how we'd get Leah home (from the party, had she come).
*we were safe and free from injury.
*Scott was driving.
*the car didn't break down during the week when Leah and I might have been out and about.
*Harvey, a friend from church, gave up part of his Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon to help fix the car.

So why should I fear if my God, who is bigger than life's problems, is in charge?