Years ago I heard a story of a lady who died and had an after-death experience. When she came back to life, she had said that if it weren’t for the prayers of a man who read about her car accident in a newspaper, she would have died and gone to hell. Since God exists out of time, that man’s prayers helped to save that woman’s soul and God gave her another chance at life. I’m not sure where I heard that story but it stuck with me to this day. Now, whenever I see an accident, hear sirens, or see a cross on the side of the road, I say a prayer for that person.
For a few years, I used to commute from Pennsylvania to New Jersey for work and I would always pass a big white cross on the hill near the on-ramp for route 95. Each time I passed that cross, I would say a prayer for whoever died there. One Easter, my husband and I were on that same on-ramp headed to my mother’s house in NJ. As we turned the bend onto Rt. 95, there was a middle-aged man standing next to his car, which was pulled over on the shoulder of the road. Usually, I am not inclined to stop for numerous reasons, including prudence, but I pray for the people and for someone to stop who can actually assist them (I just recently learned how to change a tire over our vacation but prior to that only knew how to dial for road assistance). As we neared the man’s car, my heart sank and I thought, “Oh, we should have stopped to help that man.” Just then, my husband pulled over behind his car and stepped out to talk to him. I waited in the car wondering what they were talking about since he didn’t seem to have an issue with his car.
When my husband got back in the car, he said the man’s name was Gus. He had stopped to place some flowers by the cross up on the hill, which marked where his only son, Sean, had died in a car accident. I couldn’t believe it! What are the odds of actually meeting the father of that person and learning his name? My husband was shocked when I told him that every time I passed that cross, I prayed for the person who had died there. Both of us were moved by God’s tenderness in having us meet Gus. Now, when I pass by, I pray for him and his son, Sean, by name.
God was showing me that He does hear my prayers and that all prayers matter, even ones for strangers! So when you wonder if God hears your prayers, just know that He does and keep your eyes open for unexpected surprises!
]]>On the way to our hotel, we stopped for lunch to visit with some family after visiting the shops at Kitchen Kettle Village. We had already had a great start to our first day, relaxing on the drive, saying some prayers along the way, and soaking in the beauty all around us. As we were almost arrived to our family's house, suddenly "Boom!" "What was that?" we both thought, as our tire blew and we had to pull over as best as possible on a single lane road. Neither of us remembers seeing anything on the road.
Well, within the time it took for me to try to find the number for our road assistance and to call and get "if this... press this number... if that … press this number …", a man pulled over in his truck, a lady pulled over and parked across the street and a local official of some sort pulled over behind us. So I hung up on my cell phone as I saw the truck driver (named Paul) take over changing our tire and the lady run across the street asking if we were alright and offering water and ice on the 93+ degree day. Then the officer (not sure exactly who he was but he wore a uniform and had an official car of some sort) pulled his vehicle behind us to keep us safe while our tire was being changed. He also walked back a few hundred feet to check to see what we had hit on the road and didn’t find anything so it may have been a stone that flew off the road after it blew the tire.
Within about 20 minutes, we were packed up with our luggage back in the car, with our spare donut tire in place and back on the road. It felt like we had been surrounded by angels and showered with God's love in that brief whirlwind of our blow out and we were only 15 min late for lunch! Then to top it off, we saw a rainbow as we drove our final leg of the journey to our hotel. Crazy enough, this day was one of my favorite parts of our vacation, if you can believe it!
I used to reflect on the concept of "blessed and broken" as us being broken as persons, yet blessed by God's love and given as blessing to others, as a reflection of Jesus, Bread from heaven, blessed and broken on the altar given to us. Well, today I realized that our tire experience was a new interpretation for me of the "blessed and broken" reflection: blessed by the angels sent to us to help with our "broken" tire, which set our hearts on fire to share God's blessings with all those whom we met along the way. What a great lesson in trusting in God and a great start to our vacation! It set the tone to deepen not only our relationship as husband and wife during our time away but to deepen our trust and hope in Jesus, seeing first hand He is with us always in every detail. Jesus, we trust in You!
]]>It was a year of coming together through new ways though physically separated by a virus that filled people with fear, anxiety and uncertainty and touched many families with loss, whether loss of a loved one, a job, or life as we've known it. An x-ray of our society has revealed deep political differences /separations as people have set their hopes for the future on one presidential candidate or the other. Now some are left in a sense of despair while others are "relieved" there will be "change". So this year has just begun with it's new challenges and, though it seems as dark politically as it is with the darkness of winter, we are still in the last days of Christmas and we remember the Light that Jesus brought to the darkness of the world.
This morning as I considered the ugliness of what's been going on this week in our nation's capital and the unrest of this past year, I pulled up a Psalm on my phone when I put in a search for "hoping in the Lord". Psalm 62 came up as one of the options so I checked it out and found it apropos: