I was cruising along, my iPod cranking out my favorite music and my heated seat keeping me toasty as I drove to meet my ex husband and get my girls back from their weekend with him. After years of making this very drive, every other weekend, I knew the curves of the road like the back of my hand and I flowed with the road easily, despite the weather.
I turned a bend and saw a minivan pulled off to the side of the road with the flashers going. With my new "don't just think, do" attitude (middle of this post) I contemplated that minivan, but then came to the conclusion that in this particular incident there wasn't a thing I could do. So I continued on my way.
I turned another bend when my headlights caught a figure walking down the side of the road, shoulders hunched to protect himself from the cold rain, thumb out. He wore only jeans and a white sweatshirt.
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That, "you know what you need to do" feeling.
"Gah!" I exclaimed as I hit the steering wheel.
"I don't pick up hitch hikers! It's not safe. I'm alone. I have no cell service." Because I talk to myself like that when no one else is around.
In my mind the answers to those statements gnawed at me.
His car broke down. He has no cell service. It's literally freezing cold. He isn't remotely close to anywhere. You can just take him two miles to where you're meeting your ex.
And I felt calm.
God works that way.
So I flipped around, and went back.
And flipped around again and pulled up beside him.
He was cold and shivering and grateful. "My family is waiting for me in the car. It's new and has a flat tire, I didn't realize it didn't have what's needed to change a tire. I need to call for help."
"I can take you up here a couple of miles to where I'm stopping. Maybe my ex can help you from there."
"Current Creek?"
"Yes. But you know they tore that down?"
"Yeah."
"Sometimes I get spotty cell reception when I'm there. Maybe you can get a call out."
By then we were there. He noted he had one bar on his phone and maybe he could get a call out.
He walked a little to the side and I explained to my ex what was going on as we switched kids and bags from one car to the next. And then we both waited for him to get off the phone.
He turned around and said he'd gotten through to someone and they were coming, though they were an hour and a half away. That was really no surprise since we really were in the middle of nowhere.
I told him I could take him back to his car and his family. Or I could even drive him to Heber where he could wait somewhere warm with his family until his friend could show up. Unfortunately Heber was the wrong direction for his friend to be coming so he'd have to wait in the car.
So I drove him back and wished him well, and continued on my way back home.
And gave my girls a stern lecture about how we never pick up hitch hikers.
But how many times has that been me stranded on the side of the road? Even on that very drive, and every time someone has stopped and helped me. The hitch hiker said it well to me, "isn't it always in a situation as this that things happen?"
I think about society and how it makes us scared to reach out and help each other. Because you never do know who that stranded person is.
But how grateful I am for the spirit of God that whispers to kind people when I find myself in need, find I'm the stranger on the side of the road. And how always, I've had help.
And how grateful I am that I can hear the whispers myself. And be there to help. God hears our prayers. And usually the answer comes through someone else.
May this Christmas season be spent in the service of our fellow beings. May we know in whom we can trust. We are not alone, He is always mindful of us.
