Encouragement

How God Provides When We Least Expect It

by Amy Crowe 
11/25/13
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How God Provides When We Least Expect It

I was rolling along the Interstate going as fast as the law would allow when all of a sudden, traffic came to a dead stop. I look ahead and it is at a standstill. Great! Somebody was texting when they should have been looking. I strain to see if I can find out the cause of the trouble because I need someone to blame. I have somewhere to be and this was not on my agenda for the day. There is a Sherriff's SUV a couple of cars in front of me. Maybe he can get this traffic moving again.

Suddenly I see someone running with an urgency I can't explain up to the Sherriff's car. He and his partner get out and run ahead to a van loaded down with luggage. I guess someone's vacation is being delayed. Another man in a suit gets out of a different car and also approaches the passengers of the van, except for one. He has been laid on a backseat and someone is performing CPR. All of a sudden, I feel a need to pray. I feel an urgency for someone to intervene on this man's behalf.

The next thing I know, the Sherriff and his deputy are racing back to their car and an ambulance is coming on the side of the Interstate. They load the man from the back of the car to the ambulance, and the Sherriff provides an escort for the ambulance to help clear the way and get to an exit.

As the man in the suit goes to climb back in his car, I roll down my window to ask if everything is ok.

The man in the suit introduced himself as the pastor of a local church who had gotten out to see if he could be of assistance to the family.  He said the man in the ambulance was a husband and father of two girls who was driving his family on a vacation. Up ahead , beyond where I could see, there was a truck that had forgotten to tie down a load and it caused several cars to swerve, including an 18 wheeler to jackknife. Luckily, no one was hurt, but this man in the van experienced a heart attack while sitting at the standstill. Wow, if he had been going 75 miles or more an hour, he could have been killed or could have killed someone else.

The pastor said, "Thank goodness for the standstill. There's no telling how many lives were saved because no one was moving". He gave me his card that had a website on the back, http://www.howgodprovides.com/. He said this site  was always helpful to him in his profession to provide others he encountered on a daily basis with inspirational bible verses and meaningful quotes to get them through a tough time.

As other rescue personnel started to arrive and traffic started moving again , I noticed  my right front tire was barely limping. I had blown a tire. What if I had been going as fast as I had been before the standstill? Suddenly, I was not even looking for who to blame. I was thanking God for providing me a safety net when I didn't know I needed one. Thank you God for engineering everything that happens for a reason even when we can't see it. I think while I wait on the roadside service to come change my tire, I will check out the website from the pastor's card. Maybe next time something unexpected happens, I may be able to provide someone else with some inspirational words to help them through.

Sometimes, things happen that take us from our normal routine and shake things up a bit. Sometimes it may be an inconvenience. Sometimes, we can't see what may be happening around the bend.  When we have an unexpected delay, when we have an illness we can't explain, when we have a problem we can't fix,  it is amazing to see how God provides, even when we least expect it!

http://www.faithwriters.com/websites/my_website.php?id=63307

http://amybcrowe1.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/how-god-provides-when-we-least-expect-it/