Roadside Assistance

Last weekend my friend and I had planned on spending Sunday morning on the beach. We had spent the night at my boyfriend’s house, watched the Eurovision contest, taken a midnight walk, and the next morning when we got to the car to drive to the beach, we realized the lights had been left on, and sure enough, the car didn’t start.

Now, I have to say that my friend handled it admirably. If it were my car that wasn’t starting, I would be cursing my carelessness and swearing trilingually. She however remained calm, called the car’s owner, then called roadside assistance. A long, hot hour later, the guy arrived, jumped the motor, and asked for her signature. A happy ending to a disappointing Sunday morning.

Today I was sitting down to eat lunch after a frustrating morning at work, trying to hold back my PMS-and-other-life’s-little-complications induced tears when the phone rang. It was my grandfather calling from Sweden to say thank you for that (very short) email I’d sent him earlier this morning. Sidebar: Old people can be really great or really troublesome. My grandfather is of the former category. He loves life, loves God, loves his family, loves the computer. It really doesn’t take much to make the guy happy.

Anyway, he calls me with a most encouraging word about how whenever he’s felt down, in the dark, depressed and disillusioned, God has always worked something in his life that has only made sense years later. No matter how grim the situation looks now, God is working in the background.

I thought about the car in need of a jump start. For the past two years I’ve felt like a dead battery in need of some roadside assistance. Even though I had to wait an hour for the towtruck to arrive, it did get there eventually. That call today was like a jumper cable to my dead battery. As soon as we hung up, I started crying, thanking Jesus for knowing and giving me exactly what I needed right now. My problems are still not solved, my prayers are still unanswered. But I know the towtruck is on its way. Our Daddy knows exactly what we need and His timing is so much better than ours even though it’s so hard to accept. I know He’s working in the background and I have faith that the best is yet to come.