Commending Themselves unto the Lord
Late one winter night, my husband & I were driving home from Salt Lake with two of our kids & sister-in-law. We hit some ice & spun out of control until we landed on the steep muddy bank of a huge ditch. We were shook up, but we were fine!
While we called a tow truck, we saw a car hit the cement median, another hit the exit sign, and another clip the car of a guy who’d stopped to check on us. It was wild, like pinball on ice! Thankfully, everyone was okay!
Us girls then walked up the exit to a safe spot while my husband waited in the car for the tow truck.
While in the car, he said a prayer of thanks, then felt prompted to put his seatbelt on again. A second later, a truck sliding at freeway speed crashed into him head-on.
Remarkably, he was fine (a few days of sore ribs) & so was the truck driver. In fact, hitting our car stopped his from tumbling into the water-filled ditch.
A MINUTE later the tow truck arrived... just in time to take our now totaled car to the junk yard.
It was a crazy night, & I’m grateful we didn’t witness anything worse!
Sometimes life feels like one big icy freeway of cause & effects! We are in the cross-fire of it all! It’s a storm-tossed sea of chaos! One minute we’re floating along, and the next we’re pummeled by “furious wind[s]” Eth. 6:5), “mountain waves” (6), “monster[s] of the sea” (10),
or a truck.
No wonder after preparing for their trip it says the Jaredites “commend[ed] themselves unto the Lord” (4)!
What choice do we have in this crazy world other than commend ourselves to the Lord?
Because the truth of it is- EVEN IF we prepare, EVEN IF we make our vessels tight, EVEN IF we have stones of light- that doesn’t always stop the storm!
Some things are out of our hands. So we must give it to Him.
Do we trust Him to “bring [us] forth again upon the top of the water” (7) when we are “buried in the depths of the sea” (6)?
Do we trust He knows ALL, and what looks like a mess to US is actually part of His plan?
Do we trust He is our “light continually, whether... above the water or under the water” (10)?
There IS meaning in the madness,
a master in the tempest,
a divine navigator in our course to the promised land.
I've often wondered if they got tired of the the wind constantly blowing. But it was blowing to get them to the promised land. Had it stopped, they wouldn't have made progress and might have been gone backwards. The storms of life are there to help us progress, no matter how much we hate the wind. So glad you guys were safe that day!
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly! The wind can be awful- and I wonder too if they got tired of the constant blowing! It sounds like it never let up for them! But a year on the sea was already SO long- think how long it would have been if the wind had stopped for awhile?
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