Story of the Week, January 29, 2011, God’s Vehicle

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January 27, 2011

Hello, friends. Not much happening these days. I guess we’re all waiting for spring.
In the meantime, here’s something to warm you.

We don’t always have to sense an angel’s presence for them to be near us. Sometimes the “coincidences” in life are so compelling that it must be a heavenly being orchestrating everything or bringing comfort. Jim would agree.

It was one of those difficult situations in life that everyone eventually goes through, even those who are very close to God. It was 1993, and Jim and his wife were divorcing. Jim’s wife had been awarded primary custody of their ten-year-old son. “She also was given the good car, although I was still making payments on it,” says Jim. “With the other financial settlements, I was left pretty much broke.”

To make matters worse, one day Jim’s wife left town, taking their son with her. They settled in a town about 130 miles away, but it might as well have been 13,000 miles, since Jim’s old car was a rusting hulk with a quarter of a million miles on it, and extremely unreliable. “I was terrified that my son might feel abandoned,” Jim says, “and I knew I needed to see him regularly. So I started praying extremely hard.”

Jim told God all about his need for more reliable transportation, and at the same time began researching cars. (An act of faith, yes?) He thought a 1989 Omni might be economical, but when he looked up the price, it was about $4000, much too high for his budget. One morning, however, Jim drove past a bait shop and saw a 1989 Omni parked in front, with a For Sale sign on it. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to look, so he pulled into the parking lot. “How much are you asking for your Omni?” he asked the owner.
“850 dollars,” the man replied.
Impossible, Jim thought. The engine or transmission must be bad. “Can I try it?” he asked.
“Sure.”
The Omni was in great shape. The only flaw that Jim could find was a bad wheel bearing, and he could get that fixed. He came back to the shop with his heart pounding. This HAD to be his car. “How about $750?” he asked.

“$800.” And that was that.

Jim’s job was a hundred miles round trip every day, and with visits to his son, he put 56,000 miles on the Omni during his first year of ownership. During the second year, he was able to get a transfer much closer to his home, and that was good because by the third year, the car had 200,000 miles on it and was starting to act up. “One day as I started out to visit my son, the car began to die at every corner,” Jim says. Somehow, he knew that this was the end of the partnership. But he had recovered somewhat financially and could afford modest payments on a better used car now. He turned the Omni towards home, and said a prayer of thanksgiving. God had found him a car just when he desperately needed one—and kept it going so he could build a deeper relationship with his son—and he would always be grateful.

Then…Was it his imagination, or did he suddenly hear the words, “I can do better than that!”

Jim will never know, but suddenly a deer ran out and struck the side of his car. No one was hurt, but the insurance company sent a check to Jim for $850, enough for a down payment on another car.

Today Jim’s son is a college graduate and a husband, and has a good relationship with his father, honed during those difficult days. God does care, even about Omnis.

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