Snow Blind

Once again the forecast is calling for a winter storm to hit our area tomorrow.

Reminds me of a time when we were very young and foolish.

In our early twenties and only four months into our marriage, we traveled south to visit my family over Thanksgiving.

The trip home got a little insane.

After we'd said our goodbyes, given hugs we got on the road at about 5:30 p.m.

(My husband likes to travel at night.)

Somewhere in Iowa we hit a terrible snow storm. We stopped in Mason City to ask a few travelers how the roads were if were to continue on our journey. They warned that us it would get worse! But did we listen? Noooo! We were young and adventuresome and still naive.

So, we got back into the car and continued East.

Sure enough the storm did get worse...it turned into a blizzard! . Snow came at our windshield like a constant stream of white arrows... We could no longer see the highway nor the lay of the land. It was all just a blanket of white. We were snow blind and alone. By this time no other cars were on the highway. Obviously they had used their common sense and pulled over to wait out the storm.

I took the task of guiding my husband by watching for the reflectors on the sides of the highway. I would let him know how close we were to the edge. We were only about 1/2 hour from home under normal driving conditions.

Yes! We were beating this storm. Our 1977 rear wheel drive Plymouth Volare' Roadrunner trudged through the deep snow until...

we came to a slow and gentle halt.

There was a curve in the highway that we hadn't seen. We had driven off the road into a ditch. My husband tried to dig our way out, but we had no tools or an emergency kit of any kind.

A semi-truck driver who was heading back toward Albert Lea (Away from our destination) stopped and offered to give my husband a lift. My better half returned to our car to inform me, "This guy is going to give me a ride to town. I will try to find a tow truck. You stay here with the car."

But, thankfully the trucker didn't wait for my husband, and left.

Looking back now we see God's protection in this.. There was no way he was going to get a tow truck to come out in that blizzard. It wasn't uncommon in that part of the country to hear news reports about people freezing inside their vehicles during winter storms. Little did we know that I was carrying our first child, so three lives were at stake.

About an hour later a snow plow came by and pulled us out of the ditch. We now had a clear path as we followed the truck. Things were looking good, till the plow turned around at the county line. Once again the Roadrunner was bucking drifts as we slowly made our way closer to home.

The next glitch in our trip is when we hit a particularly large snow drift that knocked the fan belt off. As crazy as it sounds, our engine was overheating in a blizzard! We pulled over. With an umbrella in hand my husband started hacking away at the snow that had encased the engine.

After that we could only travel for a short distance before the engine would overheat and we would have to stop to let it cool.

Thankfully another plow came by and saved us. He cleared the exit ramp to our home town.

We were almost to our little house, but the car couldn't make it up the small incline to our driveway. The Roadrunner had gone over 400 miles in a blizzard, but couldn't make it that last few hundred feet. We got out, tramped through the snow and up the hill.

We entered our home at last!

It had been about 12 hours since we'd left my folk's home. A trip that normally took us 7 1/2. We crawled into bed early that morning thanking God for His protection.

~

God is such a loving Father. He even protects His children when we are making some foolish choices.

Many years later we are much more mature and don't need God to protect us from our choices, right?

If only that were true. We are still weak humans living in a broken world and sometimes we choose things that are foolish and unwise. So, I ask Him often, "Father, please protect us."

And what a wonderful Father we have.

I am so thankful that I am one of his children.

We know that we are in His care, even during the storms of life.