God in Control

When I read the Old Testament stories of God’s dealings with the Israelites and New Testament Gospel accounts of God’s deeds, my usual takeaway is that God has everything in control. Don used to have a bumper sticker that said, “The Lord knows the hairs in your head including your wig.”

Let’s take the story of David. The Bible records that David picked up 5 stones for His anti-Goliath weapon. (I Samuel 17:40).  Why bother about this little detail? Or, in the New Testament, John 21:10 tells how 7 disciples went back to fishing. One night when they couldn’t catch anything, Jesus appeared to them, told them to cast their nets. They caught 153 large fish. Of what consequence is the number of fish they caught? 

About 10 years ago, Don pastored a little church across the Bay about 25 miles from our home in San Francisco. As we got ready for church, Don cut himself badly while shaving. He started to bleed. He was taking a blood thinner at the time and we knew that it would take some time to stop the bleeding, so we agreed that I should drive. 

You have to understand that I am a much slower driver than Don, and supercautious, a little old lady who needs 3 car lengths to change lanes. As we got on the Bay Bridge, I took the right lane for the slower drivers.  At about a third of the bridge, we heard this awful metal noise one hears after a tire has deflated. Metal was scraping against the road.  I was terrified and in panic, and kept yelling “What should I do! What should I do” Thankfully, we were close to the Yerba Buena off-ramp and I could maneuver the car to a safe shoulder on the road as cars whizzed by. Don called our insurance company for road service.  The lady who answered was in Indiana and did not even know where the Bay Bridge was. She was not very helpful. We decided to take the Yerba Buena off-ramp. We parked the car and were on the phone again with our insurance company when a smiling middle-aged man came to our car and said, "Hi, I saw you folks, on the bridge on my monitor. You did the right thing. You kept on going till you found a safe place. I am from the SFMTA. I will help you change your tire and you should be going again in 10 minutes."

Locals would know what a frightening experience this is. The Bay Bridge is a scary spot to have car problems.  Traffic usually moves very fast. If Don was driving, he would be on the fastest lane and it would have taken quite a feat to change over to the rightmost lane of a 6-lane bridge.  But because I was driving on the slowest lane, we were right at the Yerba Buena off-ramp where help was waiting for us.

This happened to us about ten years ago but every bit of this experience remains with me. I don’t believe in coincidences. I trust in a God who says in His word over and over again, “The steps of a good man (and woman) are ordered by the Lord." (Psalm 37:23 NLTV)  Did He have in His schedule for the day Don’s shaving incident? 

Now, if you think there are things about you that God is not concerned with, (or even if you think the opposite) ask me about the story of my Grey sweater dress. . .

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