Pages

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Country Roads Take Me Home...

I love it when God gives me one of His "little" blessings - not a great big miracle and not really even an astounding answer to prayer, but just a little gift to let me know He is in control and is taking care of things.

We shared a wonderful day with family celebrating Independence Day and on the way home all 11 of us decided to stop and view the fireworks scheduled for 9:15 in a community about 20 miles from our house. The carpeting store where my son works is situated on a hill there and is a perfect place for oohing and aahing over the gorgeous display.

Since we had never been to that display before, we had no idea how bad the traffic would be coming home. My husband and I pulled out of the store parking lot when the show ended, hoping to get a jump on the traffic. We made sure our daughter (who was driving the other car) knew the way home since she's only lived in the area for a few months.

"Sure," she said. "I just get on the highway and follow it home. I'll see you there."

We left several minutes before she did and hadn't gone a mile before finding ourselves in a log jam. Our lane wasn't moving at all and we had just passed through a green light at an intersection which would take us home cross-country. Though the route was miles out of our way, it would have been better than being stranded in traffic.

My DH is not the most patient person in the world. After about 15 minutes of idling there, he saw the opportunity to make a u-turn back to the intersection and take the alternate route home.

"Oh, no! Allissa is going to be sitting in that traffic for hours with the four children! She doesn't know any other way home. except the highway." I wanted to go back toward the parking area to see if we could find her, but it just wasn't possible to turn around again. So I prayed for her all the way home, hoping they would be all right and that the kids wouldn't get too cranky, especially the baby who tends to scream a lot when tired - and it had been a long tiring day.

Imagine my surprise when their van pulled into the driveway right behind us! The Lord maneuvered them into just the right position at the traffic light (which turned green at precisely the right moment) so she would recognize our car and follow us cross country all the way home. At first there were three other cars separating us, but she just kept watching our tail lights.

Without His help, they still might be sitting there, and this poor mom would be glued to the window until all my grand kids arrived safely home...

No comments: