OH WOW!

April 16, 2006 · Posted in Ramblings

Ok Kids… here’s one of those “OH WOW” kinds of stories for you.
Some may say it’s my inner voice talking to me, or it’s just my
imagination, but I know for a fact, it was God speaking to me. And
I’m eternally grateful that he gave me ears to hear Him!

It was SUCH a gorgeous weekend! Al’s niece called last week,
and invited us to her house for Easter Lunch at her house on
Saturday, and it’s in Minnesota too. So we went to a hotel in
Buffalo, MN, had a wonderful night’s rest, then got up and went to
Amber’s house Saturday morning. We had the most amazingly wonderful
visit with every member of Al’s family there, with the exception of
one nephew who couldn’t get the time off to come with his Dad. Today
is the 5th anniversary of Al’s sister Linda’s death. The entire
family hasn’t been together since her funeral. It was a day filled
with laughter and joy! No regrets, no accusations, no tears of pain,
just shear joy. It was wonderful! I can’t even explain how fantastic
it was!

My original intent was to leave her house by about 5 or 6, so we
could be home by 11, because Ben and I were supposed to sing with the
choir at both the 7 AM and 9 AM services, and Ben was supposed to be
in a little play that pastor wrote for the occasion as well. We
didn’t actually leave Amber’s house until almost 10. I knew it was
going to be like 3 AM before we got home…. it was going to be a
really, REALLY long morning at Church today! We were about at the 1/2
way point in the journey home, we came upon a vehicle, (Ironically,
it was a Chevy Blazer) completely engulfed in flames on the side of
the road. I said a prayer that if there were people inside that
vehicle, that they did not suffer any pain or fright before they
died, and that they were in Heaven with God, and I literally heard a
voice tell me. “Do NOT go the rest of the way home tonight”

I kind of brushed it off… Devil trying to keep me from getting to
my absolute favorite church day of the year…. but I heard it again,
louder this time. I told Al, “I think we should stop and get a hotel
tonight. I feel horrible that we’ll miss church, but there’s
something telling me not to go any further.” My husband, who could
barely keep his eyes open at that point said, “Good idea hun!” So we
stopped at a Super 8 in Eau Claire, WI… where we were greeted by
the most pleasant young man of probably Indian descent. He was so
polite, friendly and accommodating! It’s after midnight, I’m
pretty sure we woke him up, and he was so nice. Said he hoped we’d
sleep well, and “God Bless You”. Apparently not of the Muslim faith.

So we get up today, head out to breakfast at Country Kitchen, and
then take a leisurely trip home. We got to just inside the west city
limits of our home town, all of a sudden, we were slowing significantly to
make a left turn to a stop sign, and we hear a KACHUNK followed by
grinding. And the car stops going forward… blew a CV joint… had
to push the car about a mile to brother Jon’s house. (Didnâ€™t HAVE to
push it, but Al insisted, and I won’t go into MY motivation for going
along with it, let’s just say that the adrenalin that MIGHT have gone
into killing him because he insisted on pushing the car is what got
me to push it that far…) anyway… waited for another brother to
get there to pull the thing to a place to get it fixed, (Esquire
mufflers, for those of you who know who “Dougie” is) and then he gave
us a ride home.

I figured out the rough mileage, and if we’d have continued on home
last night… this CV joint thing would have occurred right in the
middle of no-where at 3 AM. Literally on a lonely stretch of highway
surrounded by Cranberry Marshes and bogs… and no cell phone
reception. God is wonderful!

Posted by Julie