God Being Real, Part 3

Part 1, Part 2. 

As we were driving away from our campsite out in the boonies, we looked for cars that were going towards it.  We didn’t see any and started to feel a little bit safer once we hit the first red light in town.  It’s a small, small town and at the time I think there was only one choice of hotels.  It was one of those little motels with the office at one end of a long building, with all the doors to the rooms facing the road. There might have been 15 rooms. 

My Dad left us all in the car while he went to get a room.  We all sat, waiting for him without speaking a word.  I for one had eaten way too many marshmallows, and I don’t think I was the only one.  That, combined with the feeling as though the boogeyman were going to jump out at us at any minute kept us thinking our own thoughts.

Dad finally came out from the office.  We went into our room and collapsed where ever Mom told us to sleep.  We all slept hard.  Not one of us woke up until the sun was burning extra bright into our motel window.  We were so worn out by the time we made it to our room we hadn’t even done something as simple as close the drapes before getting into bed.  We got up and all took a shower in a real shower for the first time in over a week.  We checked out and then headed back up the mountain to see what we could see.

The drive back up the mountain was as quiet as the drive down the mountain.  When we got to our campsite, we did see that some of our things had been gone through, but there was no real damage to our set-up.  It was freaky and weird to walk through our campsite knowing that someone had been there while we were gone.  My Mom had one of those screened tents that housed our food.  It was open, and some of the food that had been put away was out on the table.  Our lawn chairs were moved around and next to one of them was an empty bag that had held our marshmallows just a few hours earlier.  

Later, Dad told us about his conversation with the owner of the motel.  As he was checking out, he said, “Didja year what happened last night?”

“No.  We went to bed as soon as we got here, and haven’t heard the news since waking up.”

“Some boys broke into the pharmacy last night and stole some things and did some damage!”

Gulp.

Like I wrote earlier, as a 13 year old, the whole episode just plain creeped me out.  Then as I arrived to my 20’s and thought about it, I thought, “God must have some huge plan for me, to save me like that.” (Ahem.  ;-) 

In my 30’s I calmed down a bit and decided that God must have had some big plan for one of the other people in my family, or even my best friend, to save us all like that. 

Now I’m 40, and I finally realize that God doesn’t have to have any world-changing plan for any of us, to save us as He did.  What He has for my Dad, Mom, two brothers, best friend and me is a never-ending love for His own creation.  Above that, He has His own counsel.  Certainly, God saving my family and friend were not meaningless.  But I don’t have to know why He did it.  God asked Job, “Who is this who obscures my counsel without knowledge?”

Job replied, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know (42:3).”

Skipping a verse, in verse 5 Job said, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

Amen, Job.  Amen.  God is Real.