When you take a month-long journey in your car or truck, there are bound to be experiences that happen when driving where you see the hand of God guiding and protecting you.  I wrote about the first experience we had with the spring snow in Colorado when we were driving from Denver to Grand Junction.

The last experience we had was when we were on the I-880 from San Francisco to Monterey, CA.  We were going about 65 mph and talking about our soon to be experience in Monterey Bay.  I was in the HOV lane with the median wall on my left side.  For whatever reason, I happened to look to my right and noticed a blue VW bug beginning to encroach in my lane.  I became aware of this disturbance and began to move to my left closer to the wall.  My thought was to honk at the woman in the VW, but before I could do that, she became aware of her encroachment and readjusted her position.  Unfortunately she over-corrected by turning her steering wheel to the right and went into the lane to her right and hit a SUV.  At 65 mph, she hit it several times with a clunk, clunk, clunk sound.

My immediate thought was that she would over-correct again and come back into my lane.  My foot went to the floor on the accelerator and took off.  As I was accelerating, I could hear the effects of other cars hitting one another as I drove out of sight.  I don’t know what happened after that, but I do know that God got me out of a potentially bad situation on the I-880 freeway.

I have often prayed for travel mercies for myself or for others, but don’t know what God does in answering that prayer request on so many occasions.  This is one where Nadine and I began to thank the Lord for His sparing us a lot of grief and potential physical pain from a lapse of concentration on the part of the lady driving the bug.

I wonder how many of these potential mishaps are avoided when we take off a little later or earlier than we anticipated.  We have no idea what lies before us, but God does.  He knows what we will encounter before we encounter the experience.  He is always aware of our circumstances and in the case of my experience, made the woman aware of what she was about to do in going into my lane.  I feel for her as well as for all who were affected in the accident, and am thankful for His mercy in saving me from the accident that very easily could have impacted Nadine and myself.

In Psalms 139, the writer talks about God’s awareness of who I am and what I am doing.  “You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away.  You observe my travels and my rest; you are ware of all my ways.” Psalms 139:1-3 CSB.  If we truly believed this statement, we might think differently about our actions and rest more fully upon Him to guide and direct our lives.

On this journey, it is important to rest upon God’s power to guide and direct our steps and be in a thankful posture for each step God gives us.