Miracle on Main Street

Ok one more car story and then I'm done, finished...no more! Wait!- before you sigh and dump me in cyber space alone to rant about the evils of auto-vehicular-mobiles just give me a chance. I'm not whining this time...this is a GOOD story. It still involved tears but they were happy, humble tears. Come on, I'm a girl, IS there another response?

So, Saturday morning after the second "car dying beside the road" episode, Justin and I dragged ourselves to town in the loaned Tercel by 9ish AM to get the Hondabeast towed. I dropped him off and went to the grocery store, realized he didn't have the note we'd written for the mechanic, and went back. He was gone. I went back to the grocery store.

It was 3 days before Christmas and I was "beating the last minute grocery shopping madness..." so was everyone else. So I resigned myself to a long grocery shopping ordeal and was not at all disappointed. Four hours later, hungry and ready to go home, I came out of my last store and headed to the car. It was snowing and cold and my hands were frozen because I'd left my gloves in the car....right beside....my keys! I was in disbelief! I couldn't believe how unlucky and completely abandoned and unloved I was by God. I even contemplated throwing myself onto the road to be obliterated by the unbelievable number of cars on the road. Heck, in the Christmas frenzy who would have noticed?

Then I realized I'd probably just get my legs run over and be crippled for life so I discarded that plan as potentially making a bad situation worse. Justin had been dropped off at home by the tow truck and he had my phone so I felt especially stranded. I stood there weeping angrily and glaring at God for about 5 minutes and then remembered I had a slew of various work keys in my purse. I pulled them out and promised God (suddenly oh so meek) that if He would make one of them work, I would have a good attitude for a week...or at least until Christmas!

I started painstakingly trying each key in each door, my fingers completely numb so it felt like I was working with prosthetics...nothing. So I tried the hatch....and I kid you not, it opened. Just like that! As if the key was meant for it! (It wasn't even a car key!) I couldn't even respond, I was so shocked! So much for my mustard seed of faith! So I climbed in head first, nearly got wedged in ars-up, and retrieved the real keys. I stayed numb and response-less until I started driving and then I proceeded to blubber all the way home!

I'd just collected myself as I pulled into the driveway and then burst into fresh tears when Justin came out to greet me. My story sounded a bit like this, "and the keys...sob....were locked....sob sob.....and then the keys....sob....and it opened....sob.... and it was the wrong key...." Very articulate!

And there you have it...my Christmas miracle! Despite the attitude, the anger, and the lack of faith, God chose to answer my prayer, reach down, and unlock the Tercel.

And you know what, I've tried the same key since...and it doesn't work.