A closed pass and some blankets were a reminder: God's in control

Life is an adventure. That much is certain.

Few individuals can accurately predict how the many twists and turns of a day’s events will turn out. A traffic accident can turn a one-hour commute into nearly double that, an unforeseen expense can derail vacation plans, and certainly family dynamics can morph into tales of the unexpected.

It’s no wonder that a lot of people today look at the world in chaos and either conclude that God doesn’t exist, or even worse, that he doesn’t have the capability of keeping the world under control.

Personally, I would never dispute the fact that global events do in fact appear chaotic. Furthermore, I can attest firsthand that the roller coaster ride of my own life can leave me dizzy, so to speak. However, I have also experienced a great many things that I believe can’t be chalked up to mere coincidence, including the following actual story which is a case in point.

My girlfriend’s parents live in the Spokane area, and I accompany her on most of her visits out that direction. The drive itself can get rather long, and there are several spots that require attentive driving, particularly in the mountain passes.

One weekend a few months ago, we hopped in her grey Ford Focus and made the long trek eastward, and did so without any problems at all.

The journey back that Sunday evening turned into quite an adventure. We kept an eye on the weather and road reports (we had a wireless connection on the computer) to stay clear of anything bad, but ended up in an enormous traffic jam due to an avalanche in the pass. All the vehicles got turned around at one point and sent back in the other direction.

Smart people prepare for such an eventuality by packing food, sleeping bags and such, and that point I certainly didn’t feel terribly bright. Every town within a reasonable distance had already sold out every motel room, as there was literally no room at the inn(s).

We pulled off the highway into Cle Elum (that’s French for “ain’t much here”), got gas and something to eat, and tried to figure out how to handle being stranded with no place to stay. At the table across from us was a blonde woman eating alone, and being the people person that I am, I struck up a conversation with her. Brenda (my girlfriend) and I found out that she was a former pastor’s wife.

Oddly enough, we found we had a lot in common, and she had managed to get a hotel room before everything sold out. Tammy (the woman’s name) offered to let us sleep on the floor, but feeling a little odd about that, we did accept use of the blankets and pillows that she had available.

If you have never had the privilege of sleeping in the back of a Ford Focus with the back seats folded down in sub-freezing temperatures, just imagine how much fun it is! It was a bit cramped, but with the blankets we managed to stay reasonably warm (turning on the heat every so often) and actually got some rest before the next morning.

The main pass was still closed, but Brenda and I ended up eating a nice breakfast and navigating through another route to get back to the Seattle area. During one part of that return drive, there was a breathtaking rainbow with very intense colors –– in my view, a reminder to both of us from God that he is indeed there and ready to care for us, even when we are not smart enough to plan ahead.

While the world is chaotic and filled with scary things, my personal experience is that God is indeed in control. Coincidence, luck and good fortune can’t adequately explain getting through our pass adventure. If luck were involved, the pass wouldn’t have closed to start with, right? Being in the right place at the exact moment with someone who had both the means and desire to be helpful can’t be explained away, especially when we found out how much we all had in common.

It was one of those moments when God reminds us he is in control, and I suspect he got a huge chuckle out of it all.

Joe Rinehart is a former pastor.

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