Unshackled Moments ~ August 1 ~ Lion's Dens

My boss went to Oklahoma last week to pick up a 40 ft trailer full of farm equipment. He got it home, and the next day we were going to take the equipment to his  sales lot and unload it. The truck wouldn't start. After trying and checking several things we discovered that a wire had come loose from the starter because a nut had come off a bolt. He found a replacement nut, but the starter had to come off the truck in order to put it on. Once that was done the time came to put the starter back on. In the process of doing that Eddie  broke the solenoid. When all was said and done, that little adventure cost four days of time waiting to unload the trailer and over $80 in repair costs, not including my labor.

Yesterday we headed to the lot to unload. Eddie drove the truck with the long trailer, and I followed in another truck. He turned into a fuel station on the way to the lot. He told me he just realized that he was about to run out of diesel. He didn't have enough to get to the lot and to a fuel station.  He said it's a good thing he noticed, because running out with that huge load would have really been bad, and if he had run out on the way back from Oklahoma. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed how low on fuel he had been. I agreed that running out would've been horrible, but said it actually was good he hadn't notices, because if he'd stopped for diesel on the way back he'd've been stuck at the pump. The truck wouldn't have started back up due to the wire. He thanked the providence of God that it had worked out as it did.

Sometimes things go wrong, and if we focus on the downside, the loss of time and money, the inconvenience and frustration we may not see the hand of God protecting us. Daniel received God's protection from the lions, but he still spent the night in a lion's den in the dark with the remains of victims and feces and the beasts themselves. God's care doesn't always mean problem or worry free. But we need to remember that no matter how bad things feel or seem it doesn't mean that God isn't good to us or doesn't love and provide for us. It's never until we're past it and  haven't been eaten by the lions that we can see the providence of God keeping us safe. In the midst of the situation we usually only see the teeth.