The black and white, aerial photo of a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood was time-stamped “Monday, June 7, 1948, 2:30 PM.” The caption marveled that there was not a single automobile visible on the streets: of the sixty or more homes in the picture, only one had a car parked in its driveway! At that time in America, families had only one automobile and at mid-afternoon the man would have it with him at work.
I was born into a one-car family in rural Fairfield County in the 50’s. Although images of Leave It To Beaver and Mayberry RFD color my memories, those idyllic times carried the real threat of serious injury with no means of transportation to the hospital. With four active boys at the Grubb house, regular carnage was guaranteed. For instance, I managed to knock myself unconscious on two separate occasions, but that’s a story for another time.
In 1955, my oldest brother, Tom, filleted his finger with a hand saw while cobbling together a wooden go-cart. It was the middle of the afternoon—with no emergency squad available or other means of transportation—so Mom called my cousin, Dick, while bandaging Tom’s bloody finger. My six-year-old energies were caught up in the excitement of the moment. I loved the drama: a bloody brother, a mother with laser-like focus, and now my cousin hurtling toward our house in his hot rod Rocket 88! Who needed video games?
Like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting, we took our posts at the end of the driveway. Tom held his bundled finger up to the sky, Mom wrung her hands on her apron, and we all fixed our gazes on the small opening in the trees a half mile down the road that would provide the earliest glimpse of our deliverer. Finally, at about half past forever, we heard the deep rumble of Dick’s V8 Oldsmobile in the distance, the racy growl of its dual exhaust echoing up the valley as he passed Alton Delong’s farm. The sun glistened off the freshly polished hood of the jet-black Olds as it floated into the sharp corner a thousand yards from our driveway. My wonderment turned to bewilderment as the tires howled in protest, fighting to cooperate with their young driver’s command. Speed overcame traction as the blurred Olds careened out of control. In a micro-second, the heroic mission became uncontrolled chaos. We stood helplessly as the Olds collected fence post after fence post before shuttering to a sudden halt—resting nose-high at the crest of a steep bank facing our neighbor’s front door.
We broke into a sprint toward the ominous cloud of dust that was settling into an eerie silence. We arrived just as Dick kicked open the door and climbed from the wreckage. He was OK, but he stood on the bank looking down at his Olds like a cowboy who knew the next sound should be the merciful crack of his Colt 45.
I stood there genuinely disturbed… not that my brother had been seriously injured, or that my cousin had suffered a frightening auto accident, but genuinely upset that Dick’s beautiful black Rocket 88 looked to be broken beyond repair. But by the grace of God, Mr. Poole, the neighbor in whose yard Dick had landed, was home and soon Tom and Mom were off to the hospital in his bulbous Rambler American Station Wagon. Dick’s car was eventually pieced back together, Tom’s finger had an envious scar, and I was left with an indelible memory of a day that went from bad to worse before it went back to normal.
Lord, thank You for meeting my every need – even when Your rescue does not come in the form I expected. Sometimes the drama of my daily life distracts me from seeing Your purpose and relying on Your provision. Help me to trust in You when things go from bad to worse, and to see You in every circumstance during my day. Amen.
Read Isaiah 53:1-8
- These verses were written prophetically about the coming Messiah. Write down the words used to describe the Messiah, who would later prove to be Jesus. Are these the words you would expect for the One who would rescue a kingdom?
- Read Matthew 13:54-58. Why did the Jews had a very hard time recognizing Jesus as the Messiah?
- Do you ever find it difficult to recognize Jesus in the common, everyday things?
- How do inflated expectations blind us to the people, events and circumstances God is engineering to meet our needs?
Read John 21:1-14
- Do you think the disciples were disappointed to be fishing again, having spent three years following Jesus only to see Him rejected and crucified?
- Like disciples who fished all night and caught nothing, have you ever felt that your hard work wasn’t paying off?
- Has God ever told you to do something that just didn’t make sense—like throw your net to the other side of your boat?
- What happened when the disciples obeyed the stranger on the shore? What has happened when you obeyed God?
Read Luke 24:13-35
- What was the disciples’ mood and state of mind as they walked to Emmaus (verse 17-24)?
- Can you think of a time when circumstances confused and confounded you?
- How do you maintain your trust in God when life throws a curve?
- These lucky disciples had Jesus to explain the Bible to them. How do you figure out how to apply God’s word to your life?
- What situation is not turning out like you had planned? Can you see Jesus working in the midst of it?