I almost crashed.

5 minute read

I remember from growing up my mom would lament about her “night vision”, and I found this very puzzling… What is the big dang deal? Yes it is darker, but you just open your eyes, woman. Not hard. Right?

Wrong.

About 2 years ago, I started to fullyyyy understand these woes. Sorry momma.

So night vision and all, three days ago, I was driving home from a friend’s house at about 9pm. It was very dark, and not long after I left her house, I realized I made a wrong turn into unfamiliar territory. 

Anyone who has ever driven with me knows my foot is ledden and my sense of direction is non-existent. Superb combo (or trifecta rather) when you throw in the night vision.

With all of this in mind, I should’ve stopped before I even started heading along the highway in a way that felt right.

In an instant, I realized my sense of direction had still not developed after 20+ years of driving (weird), and I quickly exited the highway toward the “idiot turn” as Betsy’s dad called it growing up. This is the little “under the highway” turn for, well, idiots going the wrong way.

Hiiiii.

So this particular turnaround was slightly different in that I had to stop at the stoplight rather than just do the loop-de-doo under the highway, and while this should’ve been red flag number one, ding dong here just felt grateful for the red light so I could enter our address into the GPS.

(Yes I have lived in Fort Worth for almost 15 years, and I still use my GPS almost daily. I can feel Crawford cringing through the screen). 

After entering my address, the light turned a blurry green, and my night vision (or lack thereof) started to kick in, and while I felt a little uneasy, I went ahead and went left under the highway. I got to the second half of my turn, saw another green light, and I went again...

Straight into oncoming traffic.

As soon as I realized this, it was too late to stop or back up, so I gassed it, slammed on my horn, and all I remember thinking was This Suburban is so long. This Suburban is so long. This Suburban is so long. As I basically came up and out of my body to spectate, I kid you not, THREE CARS perfectly aligned with my right front tire, passenger door, and rear bumper respectively somehow slowed in space in time. 

There was a blur, a force field, something otherworldly to stop them because there was no other reason for them to not all three slam into me -- especially the one aimed at my front right tire.

But guys, I somehow squeaked past them, long Suburban and all.

As I came out of shock from what had just happened and started to hear something other than the sound of my horn, the lyrics of the radio registered in my brain:

Even when I don’t see it, You’re working.

Y’all! 

Only God. ONLY GOD!

Presently, Crawford and I are in a bit of a waiting season (we are not “waiting” on any more children for the record ;), and in this waiting period, I’ve found myself praying really specifically for God to please show us He’s working.

LOUD AND CLEAR, LORD, LOUD AND CLEAR!

To further the drama of this situation, I admittedly had 1 very small glass of wine over a 1.5 hour time period largely because I get a headache the size of Dallas with even 1 glass of wine these days. Also, I am cheap and our hostess was gracious, so nestled next to me in the passenger seat sat the remainder of the re-corked wine bottle.

Was I under the legal limit? 100%. Could I have gotten an open-container ticket and/or had the wine splattered all over my car if 1 or 2 or 3 of those cars smashed into me? You bet. These and more what ifs came flooding into my brain, and I just cried out thanking Him for his protection and His mercy! Completely undeserved, and yet freely poured out.

Do you know my biggest takeaway from this whole situation? 

Aside from Stop driving at night, Stevie Wonder, it’s that He is always working.

Some work is overt and readily delivered, other work is covert, behind the scenes, and painstakingly slow by our human standards, and still other work is the work we don’t even know needs to be done, but all in all, we can rest in the truth that...

Even when I don’t see it, You’re working.

Yes, I know this is a lyric from a song and isn’t directly derived from scripture, but we need only to look at Psalm 121 and Isaiah 55:8-13 to know He is always working and watching over us in HIS way, not ours.

I just wrapped up reading 2 Kings where a promise of His behind-the-scenes-work is brought to light in Matthew 1.

Sidenote: Y’all that dang Old Testament is hard to read, but without it, we can’t fully see the GLORY of the New Testament!!! End sidenote.

So at the end of 2nd Kings, (spoiler alert), God allows Babylon to completely demolish and destroy Jerusalem, Israel and Judah. This is because God’s chosen people, the Israelites, have once again doo-doo’d all over everything God set up for them, when the only promise they had to uphold to keep from bearing God’s wrath was to keep His commands and follow His law. 

King David upheld this promise (ok minus an affair with Bathshebah and a second degree murder - grace y’all!), and for his obedience and love for the Lord, God promised the bloodline of Christ would be carried out through his descendants. So after King David, for 100s of years, generations of kings after him all kept the promise of obeying and worshipping God alone.

Jk.

Huge JK.

Sure, there were some God-fearing, good kings like Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah but most of these homeboys like Jehoram, Ahaz, Manasseh, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin were AWFUL. Scary. Demonic. Worshipping all sorts of gods and participating in pagan rituals. Burning their own children as a sacrifice to false gods. Destroying the Temple designed by David and built by Solomon to make room for the worship of their worthless gods.

So God got mad. He gave them sooo many chances to turn from their evil ways, but He is a God of promise-keeping afterall, and finally His wrath came down hard at the end of 2nd Kings with the Israelites being exiled to Babylon.

Y’all, in this day, when someone conquered a land, they often killed every living descendant of a king or royal family. After Israel and Judah were conquered by Babylon, this could’ve happened very, very easily and therefore wiped out the bloodline of Christ.

BUT GOD!

God promised the Savior of the world would come through the bloodline of David, and even after so many of these fools ran 90mph the opposite direction from Him, He kept working.

Here’s how:

A lot of you might know this, but it was new to me: If you look in Matthew 1 at the bloodline of Christ, you’ll see David, you’ll see Asa, you’ll see Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah (all the good guys listed above), but do you know who you also see in the bloodline of the Savior of the world? 

Jehoram, Ahaz, Manasseh, and Jehoiachin. Evil dudes, y’all. Child burners.

Right now we’re specifically about Jehoiachin because he was exiled to Babylon right before Babylon fully took over, so he was kinda the last hope for David’s bloodline. While in Babylon, the newly crowned king named Evil-merodach - really his name had EVIL in it - “was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison… he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings of Babylon.” 

Y’all! Only God!

He took the evil king Jehoiachin and preserved his life through the hands of another evil king, and in 14 more generations - JESUS is birthed from this bloodline.

Even when I don’t see it, You’re working.

Wherever you are today - waiting, rejoicing, in a trial, coming out of one, skeptical of everything I just, angry at God, curious but scared, feeling less than, wanting more - please, please know and trust He is working. It might not be in the way you want Him to work, but there is always purpose behind every.single.thing He does. 

And guess what? In the words of Louis Giglio, through all of HIS work, “You get good, God gets glory.” Romans 8:28 lived out, baby.

Father God, you are intricately involved in our lives. You see all, you know all, you orchestrate ALL! God we fall so short of deserving your love, grace and mercy, yet you continue to give it. Thank you, thank you for the greatest gift of love of all - your Son. Every good king you sent in the books of Kings couldn’t save Israel, Lord. The only One who could save us from our sins past, present and future is your Son, Jesus! Thank you for loving us, even when we run far, far away from you. Father, meet us right where we are today, and help us walk with you as we enter this week. We know you are working! Help us love and trust you as you work in Your ways, not ours. In Jesus name, Amen.

Suggested scripture for the week:

Sunday/Monday:

Psalm 121: 1-2
Will you make it a point to call on your Helper today in times of need?

Tuesday:

Psalm 121:3-4
Can you think of a time when He protected you from something you “deserved” to happen?

Wednesday:

Psalm 121:5-6
Can you think of a time when He withheld something you really, really wanted, but you can now see why?

Thursday:

Psalm 121:7-8
Is there anything specifically you need His protection from? Ask Him!

Friday:

Isaiah 55:8-9
Do you find peace in this promise? Thank Him for it!

Saturday:

Romans 8:28
Can you think of an instance when God worked all things together for your good?