Angels and Sparrows

I wrote this post yesterday but was not able to post it. :)

No harm will overtake you,
   no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
--Psalm 91:10-12

I've always accused my guardian angel of taking a lot of coffee breaks. Or going to help out my brother's angel, because he had more dare-devil tendencies than I when we were kids. I'm clumsy and it seems that no matter how cautious I am this spills into my driving life. Scary, I know.

I've only had a license since I was nineteen, and in those seven years I have spun off the road four times--half of those in the same day, same blizzard. The other half this winter. The last this morning.

One a road thick with ice, lined with a deep ditch on one side and a slope into an expansive field on the other. When the wind blew and I felt control slip from my hands I just started begging the One in control, 'please don't let me do in the ditch, just please not the ditch, I can handle the field, just not the ditch, just not the ditch.' I swung out toward the ditch, I braced for the worst--and I mean the worst, and then my truck swerved the other direction. I did a complete circle as I sank into the field and ended up facing the road. If I had stopped facing the other way, facing into the field and not toward the road, I might've been able to back out. Although hindsight now tells me if I had, I would've over compensated flying back over the icy road and inevitably into the ditch I had begged to be saved from. It was good that I landed where I did. It was God. It is true--His eye is not only on the sparrow but also on me.

A few months, a year ago, my husband and I felt disconnected from the world. Our friends had scattered to the ends of the Earth and we were left out here in this windy prairie. But in July that began to change. God answered our simple and childlike prayer for friends, for community, to not be alone in our journey. So this morning all alone in a ditch, with a husband at work, a father-in-law at work, and all other family scattered...I had someone to call. Who told me of another person to call. Who came with his son to pull me out of the field. I was conencted, I was taken care of, I was safe. And I am very grateful for these things.

Tears have spilled from my eyes several times to day, despite trying to stay calm and not become an emotional female. But I the reality is, I'm not crying out of fear or anxiety--maybe initially the shock produced some tears, but what keeps choking me up is a sense of profound relief and awe for the way God provides.

 A few more feet back, it would've been a lot harder to pull me out. A few more feet over, I would've hit something pasted with a bright shiny orange label 'CAUTION: DO NOT DIG'. Seems like it would've been very bad to hit that. I was running late, so I have to wonder...ten minutes earlier, would I have hit someone else? Would someone else have hit me? I don't know. Doesn't matter, I suppose...but I do know that today God made sure my guaridan angel was on duty. Maybe he even pulled my brother's for back-up.

And I think this should count for 10 on my gratitude list...

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.--Matthew 10:29-31