I was driving home from work last week in Black Bart, my wonderful new car. I was keeping a safe distance from the car in front of me, traveling at a safe speed. Then “BANG!” A rock came flying off the tire of the car in the lane next to me as it passed me and hit my windshield. My new car’s windshield!
It looked as if it left a ding that needed to be repaired by one of those windshield guys in the kiosks in the store parking lots. Bob took it in Saturday and found that the rock left a “residue” on the windshield, but thankfully didn’t actually “ding” it.
Dings in the windshields are a common occurrence around here. Big snow tires with big treads kick up the rocks on the highways and send them flying in all directions. You can be doing everything right and still get dinged.
You can be doing everything right and still get dinged. Somehow that has a spiritual connotation as well, doesn’t it? You can be doing everything right the way God intends and still have something come flying at you from a direction you did not expect. The government shuts down and you lose your paycheck. You lose your job. You are forced out of your rental because it has become more profitable for the owner to simply sell it. Someone makes a wrong choice that impacts your life. “Stage 4” suddenly becomes part of your vocabulary. Big life-changing rocks come flying at you fast and furious and demand your attention.
I always remember that nothing takes God by surprise. You will never see God smack His forehead and says, “Boy, didn’t see that coming!” Nothing throws God off His game plan. Even rocks that come flying at us from every angle!
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD. Thank you, LORD! [Jeremiah 29:11]
