Sunday, March 14, 2010

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.

5 comments:

Marilee said...

You're not the only one who is incredibly thankful that God was watching out for you!!! I am so very grateful for the way it worked out. Thank you, God!

Leslie said...

I'm so glad you guys are all ok...how scary. I too have been putting off purchasing new tires and that might have been the incentive I needed to get out and get them sooner than later!

Erin said...

Thank goodness you are all ok. I'm glad you've got new tires! I love you.

Emily S. said...

I had such a similar tale this Saturday--- Except it was my sister's car. We were driving two hours to Kansas City when her tire DID blow out. On the interstate. Not just a little one, a BIG one. But she was so steady, and we managed to get to the side of the road VERY easily. The tire? At least FIVE HUGE HOLES in it. Shredded.

We got it jacked up, got the tire off.... and then the jack failed (my bad!!) and the car slammed to the ground again. No harm to anyone.

But now we needed more than our own little hands to help... And a stranger stopped, and SAVED us. He was from the town, so he knew there was an auto shop just 3/4ths of a mile away, so he went to get the guy to come help us. He bought his pro jack and got the tire on for us... But then told us the doughnut was DANGEROUSLY low on air and to come by his shop for some air, all of this for free.

Funny how this all works... If I hadn't screwed up the jack, we would have driven on that doughnut totally unaware of the NEW danger we'd be in...

So.

Anyway. That was long. I'm just mostly saying, I GET IT. And I am grateful for your small blessings in this case.

Hugs!!!

Stefanie said...

Stories like this one certainly put life and circumstance into perspective. Your guardian angel was there!!