Old Blue

The seats are tattered.  The headlight is busted.  The grill is cracked.  The thermometer is broken.  The tire has a hole in it.  All of these malfunctions plus a few more make up “Old Blue”.  Old Blue has been sitting, quite lonely, unappreciated, and uncared for, for the last 2 years.  Barely maintained, license and insurance, that’s it, I didn’t drive it that was Danny’s baby, I had my own.  Well after last weeks collision things changed.  Old Blue is undergoing a face lift and joining the family~again.  But before I tell that story, I have to tell you what God has done for me!  And the reason I have to tell you is because He wants me too.  To show you how He cares for His children.  This child in particular.

After Danny died, I had to find a job.  I had bills to pay!  As most everyone does!  If you like to eat, and we do, then work we must.  So as with everything else in my life, I asked God to help me with my bills.  My car payment was quite high- 450$ monthly, One of those bills that you struggle to meet every month.  So I prayed especially for the car payment.  I am thinking God will make ends meet, He always does.  So last week after I wrecked, I worried!  I worried that insurance wouldn’t cover everything.  As things began to unfold I began to see my prayers answered.   First, I have to thank God for my wreck; He did keep me safe after all!  The damage to my car was so much that it was totaled.  I found out through a random conversation with my sister that I had GAP insurance, which pays the difference you owe on a vehicle if it is totaled (and just for the record, I don’t believe in randomness with God).  That was Danny.  I would not have bought that.  I also discovered I had (Danny again) purchased an extended warranty on my car.  Yesterday, State Farm called me to say they were going to give me 19800$ for my car.  I owe 17400$ and I have a 250$ deductable.  So it will not only pay it off completely, I am getting money back!  Oh yeah, the GAP insurance and extended warranty?  Getting money back on that too because it is being cancelled early.  My big monthly payment that I prayed for a solution?  God took care of it!  Gone!  Plus He gave me extra cash to get my car, Old Blue restored like new.  And that car insurance bill?  It’s going to be much less without that car on it!  So He has done way beyond what I asked.

Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)

Now to him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.

He even went a little further!  It’s no secret I have the best brothers in the world.  Not only are they talented in that they can fix anything, anytime, anywhere, but they have the biggest hearts and they aren’t afraid to use them.  The night of my wreck, Steve and Lonnie both came to my rescue.  Then Steve loaned me his car to drive while he worked on Old Blue and Lonnie paid for it!  I know God works in mysterious ways and sometimes it’s hard to see the good for all the bad.  But God is making this very clear!  No mystery here!  I asked and He supplied!  So I had a concussion and a few bruises, nothing that won’t heal.  Sometimes God has to knock us around a little to get the job done.

 

 

 

Psalm 121:5-8 (NIV)

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

As I was driving to work I couldn’t help but think of Danny and the 176,000+ miles he had put on this car.  Of all the places he had been in it.  Vacations we had taken in it.  The many miles he drove to work to Clifton Forge, VA!  How he complained about that drive!  Then after he moved to Smoot with only a 5 minute drive, he told me one day he actually missed that drive because he used that hour drive to and from work to talk to God.  That was a lot of his prayer time. 

I gripped the steering wheel and adjusted my seat the same way he did thousands of times!  I looked out over the dash the same way he did.  Seeing the same things he saw.  I try to see things the way he saw them.  And I have to say, I view them with more patience and a less critical or judgmental eye.

1 Peter 3:4 (NIV)

⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight

Danny was a gentle giant, with a quiet spirit.  God brings beauty from ashes every time!  So as I look at my car crash, I have so much to thank God for.  #1 for keeping me safe, #2 taking care of my financial needs, #3 allowing my brothers to let God work through them so that not only am I blessed, but they will be also, because they will reap what they sow!

Galatians 6:7 (NIV)

⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

And lastly, I am thankful for the reminder of Danny’s travels in his little blue Subaru and the opportunity to take a few minutes to look at life as he did.  Had I not wrecked, Old Blue would still be on the sidelines and I would still be in a rush from here to there.  We get so busy in life that our prayer time suffers.  But I will forever be in prayer in my “Old Blue Subaru” as I sit in the tattered seats, gripping the steering wheel and looking out over the dash just as Danny did…and I can thank God for my trials because that is when the light, His light, shines the brightest. 

 

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 (NIV)

⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.