The Hand of God

I know in my head that God's protection is all around me. I know in my head that He not only cares about the entire universe, but me, specifically. I know all of this in my head, but sometimes, my heart can forget to look for this evidence. It is easy to pass off God's protection and provision as "luck," "circumstance," "the hard work of a providing husband," etc. Many times, I can look back on a situation and see how the hand of God was on it, but often the provision of God in day-to-day circumstances goes unnoticed by me.

I had a discussion with a friend recently about the beauty of seeing God's hand immediately in a situation that without Him, would be disasterous. It got me to thinking that maybe we have more of these than we think, and I resolved to try to start looking for them.
I didn't have to wait long.

Yesterday afternoon, I took my daughter to her dance class--some 40 miles away. It was cold, obviously, and a little bit rainy, but the weather had been forecasting "junk" all day, and we really hadn't seen any, so we headed out. The roads were fine the entire way there. It was spitting rain, but not a big deal.

About an hour after we got there, the freezing rain/snow started. The power went out in the entire northeast section of the town. The snow started accumulating very fast. As the studio still had power, many of our parents were at the Democratic caucus, and it would be a logistical nightmare to try to call everyone and quit classes early, the studio remained open.

Now, I am a BIG BABY about driving in weather. It scares me to death. This might have something to do with finding myself in a ditch with my 9 month-old on I 70 one time in a snowstorm. Calls were pouring into the studio about power outages, slippery roads, and cars in ditches.

I felt no fear about the drive home. Don't get me wrong--I was concerned. I didn't really want to make this trek. I asked my friends there to pray for us. I called my husband and told him we were heading out, to pray, and to be on standby for figuring out how to rescue us if we got stuck. But that paralyzing, blood-pressure-raising fear that normally comes over me in times like this wasn't there.

We headed out. It took us 20 minutes to get from one side of town to the other. We hit the highway toward our house. The highway that has had more fatalities and wrecks than I wanted to think about. The highway that runs parallel to train tracks most of the way, and in this kind of weather, the train tracks seemed dangerously close to the ditch on the side. Still no fear. Visibility was maybe 10 feet. The wind was blowing hard. It seemed like there were more bridges to cross than usual. It was necessary to drive 35mph on a highway that will normally accomodate 65mph. Still, I felt this amazing sense of peace.

It took me 35 minutes to get to a small town that marks the halfway point between the dance studio and my house (Normally, a 10-15 minute drive). About 5 miles past this point, my driver's side windshield wiper got caught in a gust of wind and completely blew off of my car! I mentioned that it was raining and snowing, right? My daughter called my husband and told him what had happened and that I was going to drive until I no longer had visibility and he might need to come get us (If you don't own a cell phone, get one :o) ).

This is where the truly amazing thing happened: Not a speck of snow hit my windshield until I was 3 blocks from home! I could see it, though, swirling angrily outside our window. Only two cars had passed us until my windshield blew off. After that, about 5 semis drove past me, and still--not a speck of moisture hit my windshield! It was like this invisible bubble was surrounding my windshield, keeping my vision clear. And I realized that I was seeing the hand of God. Immediately, and in a terrifying situation.

And my "head knowledge" hit me in the heart: God is concerned about my daughter and me--not just in some big, cosmic way, but in the "specific, divine-protection-and provision-at-8:00-at-night-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" kind of way.

This is just a glimpse of the amazing God we serve! And I don't want to forget it anytime soon!