A "God Moment"

So, I'm not a publicly religious person, but I also try to be one of those people who's pretty straight-forward about my life. Yesterday I had one of those "God moments".

I have a student who's in the hospital. She's been suffering from a chronic illness that led to the removal of her colon last week. I've wanted to go and visit, but between daycare pick-ups and living 4o minutes from the hospital, I knew it would have to happen on Saturday. And Saturdays? They're precious. As much as I wanted to show her that I care and am here to support her, my lazy body did not want to leave the house.

But, I did. With Max in tow, we drove across town. We parked in the parking garage and began to walk inside, when a lady shouted to us.

"Um, ma'am? I think you have a flat tire."

Sure enough. And not just a little. Totally. I decided that I would go in, have my visit, and then figure it out. We had a nice visit, and I was glad I went. My student is this model of strength - totally inspirational. But as we walked out, I remembered the tire.

And yes, I wimped out. I called Dan. He offered to come and rescue us - and I accepted. I know how to change a tire - technically. But in REAL LIFE? Ugh. Les Schwab (our local amazing tire chain) could have sent someone, but they were going to take 3 hours, and our AAA membership expired about 3 weeks ago and we haven't renewed yet. So Dan was packing Luke up and they were on their way.

I was feeling lucky. Yeah, I had a flat tire - but I was parked in a dry parking garage, with the flat tire facing an empty handicapped parking spot. A totally safe place for an easy tire change. Dan was there in 30 minutes, and showed me just how glad I was that he came - I'm not sure I possess the strength he had to use to remove the lug nuts. But it wasn't until he got the flat all the way off that I realized just how blessed I was.

{Side note: We knew we needed new tires. We knew that we needed them soon. It just hadn't yet made a weekend to-do list}

The inside of the flat tire was almost entirely separated. How I didn't have a major blow-out at 65 mph on the freeway is still beyond me. A total "God moment" - one of those where you know you were being watched over, protected from tragedy. Why? I'm not sure. But beyond thankful, all the same. All the terrifying-possibilities-that-could-have-been ran through my head. But there we were - safe, sound, and only very slightly inconvenienced. What if we hadn't come to visit my student? Where/when would this have happened? What if it had happened on the freeway? What if it had been a weekday? What if I had both boys with me and Dan couldn't come? The what-ifs were overwhelming, and all leading to the most obvious thing - this couldn't have worked out ANY better. I've never been so lucky to have a flat tire.

From there Dan headed straight to the tire store for four new tires, and I headed home with the boys. And today, my car is much safer.

And I am reminded of just how blessed we are.