It was a satisfying, intriguing, and sobering trip. We left at 9:45 AM Friday and I arrived back in Dublin Saturday at 7:30 PM. We left with an empty truck and came back with a full truck bed, packed car, and our daughter. It was the end of the first year for Alyssa’s college career. She made it through, and so did we.
We decided that with her car full and the truck bed packed we should be able to make it without a trailer or semi-truck bringing her back from college. When we left o Friday we hoped to get to Tustin to see her place of work by 5:00 PM, but I did not count on the two hours it would take us for 35 miles on the L.A. freeway. I mean it was only about 380 miles altogether and who would have thought it would take so long to go so short of a distance. I was kicking myself after we had been in LA traffic for a half an hour and we had only gone about five miles of the thirty-five still to go, by then it was 4:00 PM.
I started praying, realizing God may have to work a miracle because of my poor planning. It wasn’t essential for us to see her place of work, but she was so excited about working at the Blind Center for Children it would be nice to meet the people and be able to see the place so we could visual it when she talked about it next year.
Well about 5:00 PM the traffic opened up and we changed out text messages from “Not sure we will make it” to saying “We might make it after all.” It took us only about fifteen minutes to cover the last fifteen miles and my gratitude to God grew. In my prayers I began to say I am willing to let this go. We don’t have to be get there in time, so when we were able to arrive in time it was a gift.
After our visit we went to the college. I found it interesting to be in a place that my daughter knew so well and I had only been in once before. I had always been the one teaching her how to navigate places and where was the best place to go to buy something needed. Yet here she was able to direct us to places for gas or food or even where we needed to park so we didn’t get a ticket. This was the intriguing part of the trip, the child teaching the parent, not that that doesn’t happen even in the growing up years.
The sobering event was when I was purchasing orange juice and garbage bags at Wal-Mart I was waiting behind a woman’s basket full of birthday items. She had piñata in the likeness of a bust of Spiderman. She had party favors and hangings for the wall. I commented someone was going to have a special day. She said, yes her son. I said that is exciting and she soberly said, “It would be better if my husband of seventeen years hadn’t told me he wanted a divorce this week.” My heart ached and my smile changed to concern. I didn’t know what to say, but softly commented, “That is hard.” She nodded and said, “Yes, seventeen years for nothing and I have to go home and pretend nothing is wrong.” She shared she had two children and I, not knowing what else to say, told her I would pray for her. She responded by thanking me and wheeled her cart out the door.
I was struck by the fact that we don’t know what difficulties people are struggling with. Even when we see a happy event being planned there are a lot of difficult times behind those events. This is where we can bring good news in to people’s lives. This is where we can share with people that they are not alone. We can show our concern by listening to them and telling them we will hold them and their family in our hearts. We may not have a solution to their problem, but we can offer our shoulders to help them carry the weight that no person should have to carry alone.
Did God answer my prayers so we could get to Alyssa on time? I don’t know, but I was willing to accept the consequence of the poor planning and count it all gratitude if we made it in time. Did God watch over our daughter and help her learn how to negotiate a strange place? Definitely I think so. Again it took us being willing to let go and let God take care of her. Hopefully we have given her enough roots so she can fly with or without us. Will God come to this woman whose life is forever changed because her husband decided to leave her? I think so. Are my prayers important? Yes they are. Will they change her circumstance or make it better? I believe that is in God’s hands.
But one more thing I will remember about this trip, God is with us everyday and we need to be ready and available for whatever and for whomever we encounter. Perhaps we can just make a friendly comment. If they drop a concern on you like this lady did for me, just say a pray and let them know you are willing to help shoulder their concern.
God has us here in the valley and other places we go for a reason and I for one know we are to be light to a world hurting in the darkness. Let us pray for words and actions of compassion, but also remember God is the healer and master and it is on Him we must depend.
Praying daily with you,
Pastor Randy
