He'll Go Before You

The other morning I was greeted with a leaky refrigerator. Our water dispenser had gotten plugged up so we had water all over the kitchen floor. Fortunately, I was the one who found the kitchen pond first, so I grabbed some towels from the laundry room, put one under each foot, and started dancing around the room. "Well, at least I got my floors really clean today!" I thought.

As I continued to clean up the kitchen, I thought about how many times the Lord has given me little blessings like this. Yes, He lets hard things happen to me, but He always supports me during those hard times.

For example, I've only had one flat tire in the last several years, and guess where I discovered its flatness? Right in our garage. Convenient...I didn't even have to call AAA. Another time, our timing belt snapped while I was on the freeway, but I was able to pull off to the side, and my parents just happened to be on their way out to my house, so they picked us up on the way and everything turned out great.

In Deuteronomy 31: 8 it says, "And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. "

I know that is true. When we were living in Boston, I was pregnant with my third child, and I was feeling awfully heavy and sorry for myself. Our apartment was small, I felt like all I did was work, work, work, and I wasn't in love with the weather. It was a snowy evening, and I went out to rent a video on Mass. Ave. That is a CRAZY place to try to park. I figured it would take me 45 minutes to find a parking spot, but I needed to get out of the house.

Well, when I got there, a PERFECT spot opened up. It was amazing, really. I pulled right in and thought, "Wow. That's different." Then I picked out my movie and took it up to the register. The guy working there saw my huge tummy and said, "This video is on us tonight. It's a gift for your baby."

So nice. I went out to the car feeling very appreciative of that kindness. And then the Lord let me know that that was a tender mercy from Him. The thought I had was that He can control parking spots and video rentals. I know He can also control flooding refrigerators, flat tires, and schedules. I want to trust Him to go before me every day. He won't take away the trials (some of which I'm going through right now), but He can make everything better.

I feel light and happy, but I could list several things not to be light and happy about. The point of all this, to me, is that when the Lord goes before us, we don't feel alone. And when we don't feel alone, we know that we can proceed with confidence.