The Blessing Disguised as a Coincidence

I don't believe in coincidence. I believe that the events of my life are orchestrated by a loving God who has a plan for me that is good and not evil, to give me a future and a hope. That's what it says in Jeremiah 29:11, and I believe it.

Two days ago, I experienced what my mechanics can only describe as a very strange coincidence. They raise their eyebrows, hold their hands out, and shrug. "Gotta be a coincidence," they insist.

Sam and I were going to run his errands (pharmacy, grocery) and I was driving. I pulled onto the road from the far side of his drive, the side I never use, and wasn't angled enough. The undercarriage dragged on the pavement. "Back up and try again," Sam suggested. I tried. I was stuck. 

The only option was to go forward and drag myself out. It made a terrible noise, but I scraped free. I drove a few yards and noticed the "Check Engine Soon" light had come on after the scraping. I had this light once before. That time, there was a problem with the catalytic converter. It was horribly expensive to repair. I groaned. Okay. I cried, too. But that was later.

My mechanic told me once that the "check engine soon" light means you don't have a catastrophe, but you need to get to the mechanic in the next day or so. I interpreted that light to mean after the pharmacy and the grocery.

We made our rounds without problems, I dropped Sam back at his house, and went out to my car to go to the mechanic's. It wouldn't start. I cried for real this time. I imagined that I had scraped off the vital part that would've kept my car running. Nothing had fallen off on the ground. My assumption was  based on the timing of the scrape, immediately followed by the light coming on. It still makes sense to me.

I left the car and walked back to my house. A couple of hours later, I went back to check on the car. It started just fine, so I drove straight to the mechanics and told them my tale of woe. John, one of my very excellent mechanics, checked the computer. 

"It's your cam sensor," he announced, computer in hand.

"I scraped off my cam sensor?"

"Naw. This has nothing to do with your scraping. It just happened at the same time."

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah. Couldn't be anything else. The cam shaft sensor is on the top of the motor. You can't scrape it off."

"Maybe I pulled loose a wire to the cam shaft sensor?"

"Nope. The wires aren't down their either. It's just a coincidence."

I was skeptical, but left my car to be repaired. 

Yesterday, I picked up my car. "What was wrong?"

"The cam sensor was burned out. Just like I said. It's common in Altimas. Nissan put out an alert on it. You still had the original cam sensor. It should've burned out a long time ago."

"So how did that happen from the scrape?"

"It didn't. It was just a coincidence."

I couldn't believe it.

This is what I believe. I have traveled quite a bit lately. I've driven long distances by myself. At any moment, the cam shaft sensor could have gone out. Should have gone out. It didn't. Instead, it went out on a day when I was in town, with nothing pressing except my novel edits. It was the least difficult time for me to be without my car.

Had it gone out earlier, while I was on the road, it would have caused misfiring, motor vibration, then failure of ignition.  For a woman driving alone, that would not have been good.

Instead, my cam sensor went out at the time when I was between travel. One week earlier, and I'd have been caught on the road alone. One week later, and I'd have been caught on the road alone.

I whined, and complained, and wept about the inconvenience of my car woes. As it turned out, I was whining, complaining, and weeping about a blessing in disguise.

There was nothing coincidental about it. Psalm 139:16 tells us that God knows about every single day of our lives. He knows about every one of my days, and He orchestrated this one perfectly.

It wasn't coincidence. It was one more evidence of God's perfect timing.

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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: Yeast in the Flour, The Problem With Phone Calls, How to Recognize Good News, Removing the Callus, Refillable Nespresso capsules, and The New Normal.

The most read post of the past week: Removing the Callus.

#blessingindisguse #camsensor #perfecttiming