A post of praise to God for his daily grace: Yesterday, along with many others, we enjoyed Christmas with family. This year we gathered at my brother’s home in Courtenay, BC, a few hours north of us on the Island. Our family made the three hour trek up the Island in the early morning, then headed back down in the evening.
Our journey home was a little longer than expected…
On the way down-Island, actually only a few minutes out of Courtenay, my oldest son and I were travelling in my pickup truck. We were a mile or so ahead of the rest of the family. The weather on the Island is rarely snowy – we tend to rain more than snow and ice, so we often don’t anticipate road condition problems.
[You know where this is going, right???] The weather up-Island is a little colder than the South Island where we live and as we set out I could tell there was a potential for ice on the highway. I warned my number two son, driving the van, to be careful. Then we all headed out.
As we climbed up the highest hill outside of Courtenay, we suddenly and unexpectedly hit ice on the highway. My pickup began to slide as I desperately tried to turn into the skid without ‘over correcting’. Alas, the back end of a pickup is so light that managing it is almost impossible in such conditions. As we finally spun completely around and began heading for the ditch, all I could say was ‘Oh, Lord…’ in prayer.
We thank our Lord for the groanings that cannot be uttered! I am sure the Holy Spirit picked up where my inarticulate fear left off. We headed straight into the ditch and came to a rest at the bottom. Incredibly, not thirty feet from us, another vehicle was also in the ditch. We managed to miss both the vehicle and the driver. Across the highway, a third vehicle lay in the ditch in the median, the driver of that vehicle was over talking to my ‘ditch-mate’ as we whizzed by them through the snow. After we were all sure we were safe, we commented on how spectacular my plunge into the ditch must have been for the other drivers.
We sent the rest of the family on ahead, the road was good after this one hill. About an hour later, the tow truck I called arrived and got us out. We only suffered one blown tire, nothing else. At least, there appears to be no other damage to the vehicle at this point.
Everyone knows such incidents could have easily been much worse than this little one was for us. In a moment, a routine ride on a highway can turn into a deadly, costly nightmare for anyone.
So today I just want to offer praise to the Lord for His intercession on my behalf when I could do nothing to intercede for myself but cry out to Him. May God be praised for daily grace – rarely so vividly seen, but truly experienced by us all every day.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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