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.

______

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

The Blessing of the Busted Pipe

My greenhouse is still in the box. Well, it's in multiple boxes. The single-digit temperatures and the generous downpour of rain played havoc with my plan, and I have not been happy about it. Every day, I have grumbled silently that the man has not come to dig the foundation and haul the gravel. I have stewed unhappily that it is hard to walk in my house for all the plants inside. This waiting for the greenhouse has not been easy!

As I waited, a wonderful blessing was silently unfolding.  The frozen pipes have all thawed, and today we found that one had burst from the frozen water. This is particularly wonderful because it is the hydrant in my garden. It has always been in the MOST inconvenient place, but I never had a reason to justify the expense and effort of moving it. Today, however, I have a serious flood occurring right where my greenhouse was going to be located. There is enough water rushing out of the broken pipe that knee-high garden boots are required for wading, and if not staunched soon, I will be building an ark. 

You may not remember this, but my planned greenhouse location was not even on my list of preferred sites. It was chosen (after a bit of unrequited whining) because of its proximity to the hydrant. The pipe that burst will need to be repaired and the prospective repairman suggested now would be a good time to change it. Indeed it would. I will still have a hydrant in my garden, but we will also run a water line to the spot that was FIRST on my list of preferred sites. 

The blessing of the broken water pipe! In any other situation, a broken pipe would not likely be welcome. Today, however, it is the best thing that could've happened, and I am giving thanks for the blessing that came disguised as adversity. 

Frogs: The Blessing in the Plague

Friday is not just my day off. The best Fridays are also Yard Work Day. Today was one of those wonderful days when the only place I need to be is home, and the only thing I must do is whatever I want to do. What a grand day!

I had just finished cleaning my garden shed and moved to the herb garden. All those empty cardboard boxes were going into the herb garden as part of yet another weed control program. (Cover the ground with cardboard, cut out around the plants, cover over with pine straw. It's going to work great!  I hope.)

As I secured the cardboard and scattered pine straw, a tiny frog jumped on my hand. (Well, it could've been a toad. I didn't look very close) I shook it off and continued working. Pretty soon, I realized there was a multitude of frogs in that garden, and they were hopping on me!

Of course, I started grumbling about the frogs and thinking about Moses and Pharaoh. Mid-grumble, I sensed that still, small voice in my heart. "What do frogs eat?" I had an epiphany, right there between the rosemary and the basil. They eat bugs. Flies, gnats, mosquitoes. Frogs are great for gardens. 

That started me thinking about the plagues and their order. First, the Nile turned to blood, then the frogs came. It was only after the frogs were in place that the gnats came. No one realized it at the time, but the frogs were a living demonstration of judgement tempered with mercy and grace. Gnats are a yummy meal for frogs. By sending those frogs at the beginning, God had given a way out of the plague to come. Isn't that amazing? The frogs those Egyptians probably hated were actually a blessing in disguise! 

There's no doubt that those bug-eating frogs in my garden are a blessing, and I have the healthy herbs to prove it. How many times does God allow something hard into our lives that seems bad at the  time, but ends up being a blessing because it prepares us for something yet to come? I can think of several instances in my own life, and you probably can too. 

This afternoon, I'm thanking God for the frogs - in my herb garden and in my life, and praying you will do the same.