Car Troubles and God's Solutions

This has been the week of car troubles.

About two years ago, while my nephew was still at a great job, we had the bearings on the front passenger side done. We did not have the funds for a full-service job but we had enough for a half-baked job which we were told should last anywhere from two to ten years.

This past week, we heard the tell-tale thumping, and other familiar sounds, coming from the front driver side wheel. We were afraid to wait too long and we took it in on Thursday. It was so far gone that the bearings fell all over the garage bay when they took off the wheel. Once again, we were short on funds and had to settle for a minor repair but it, too, should last from two to ten years.

Along the way, we went from fear (at the first sounds of trouble a week ago) to complete relief and gratitude on Thursday after the job was done.

Half of the time we felt concern over the trouble; the other half of the time we were extremely grateful because we realized the Lord coaxed us into the shop before it was too late for even a half-baked job to help. God's timing is incredible, as we have noticed in the past.

This morning, we were all set to drive to Michaels so that I could get some yarn for a pair of slippers that a neighbor wants me to make for him. When Frank drives, he uses the Freeway; I prefer surface streets. Either way, the roads were wet from recent rains. We had not even gone a mile, and were about another mile from the Freeway entrance, when we heard a slap-slap-slap sound. We pulled over as quickly as we could find a safe place but didn't see a flat. Frank got out and I drove very slowly to rotate the tires so he could see if there was anything wrong. Yep, a really big bolt was skewering the rear driver side tire.

We realized we'd be stupid to continue on our way, so off we went to Discount Tires. We'd bought the tires there and had their road-hazard coverage. When they began to work with the embedded bolt, air gushed out and the tire went flat almost immediately - close call! Almost two hours later (this being a busy Saturday), the tire was repaired. By that time, we gave up on the yarn-buy journey and postponed it for a day or so.

Two things are interesting about this issue.

First, we were once again grateful (once we got over being annoyed) that we found this bolt and trouble before we got on the Freeway, meaning we averted the possibility of a blown tire in heavy and rapid traffic.

Second, after we got home, the neighbor called and asked for an alteration of the size and the height of the slippers, which means I need more yarn than what I would have bought this morning. If we had not stopped for the tire, I would have short-bought and would have had to waste more gas for a second trip to the craft store, over 10 miles away.

Yep, God sure knows his stuff when it comes to our lives in this household.

Father, forgive my early annoyance over these matters. Thank you for alerting us to problems before they became more difficult or even impossible to fix. And thank you for helping us to find the funds to deal with the costs.