A Reminder that You are in God’s Hands

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil, he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 121, ESV)

Have you ever had a God moment where you truly felt just how small and powerless you are in the light of how almighty and sovereign He is?

Very recently, Sam and I have had friends from our church spending the summer in Washington for some medical treatments a couple hours drive from where we live. Since I’ve been couch-bound with our newborn, Lily, for the last month, we were chomping at the bit to get out of the house and go somewhere, and we decided a day trip to get some lunch with them was perfect.

So, we loaded up the kiddos and got on the road. The route to Dayton required us to travel through a passage called Deadman’s Pass, which goes up and over a mountain into the next valley. This pass is not flippantly named, but the high altitude, serpentine bit of highway, and abrupt drop offs all add up to some pretty amazing views of the valley below. Sam and I were amazed at just how far you can see, since the valley is vast and seems to go on quite a way. As we were descending from the pass, it felt like we were going too fast. I asked Sam to slow down because I was feeling a little freaked out.

Once we made it out of the pass, we traveled on for about another hour through endless farmlands. As usual– Sam and I love long car rides– we were talking and laughing the whole way while both girls blessedly took substantial naps in the back. Finally, we hit the first major town after miles of hay fields and Sam rolled down his window and said, “Do you feel that?”

Those words are ones you never want to hear when you’re on a road trip that is a decent distance away from home with two kids under two years old in the backseat. Sure enough, there was a small tapping noise coming from the front drivers-side wheel and the truck had a slight gallop.

Sam pulled off and got out to take a look. He popped his head back in the cab and told me that one of his lug nuts was gone, the stud looked to be broken, and the wheel was coming off. After a few minutes of searching for a mechanic, tightening the rest of the lug nuts we had, and assessing our situation, we decided to very slowly make our way to a tire shop and stop every so often and check that the lugs were still tight on the tire.

Once we got back on the road, it all started to hit me: Just an hour ago, we were traveling on a potentially dangerous stretch of road for a pick-up truck missing a lug nut. My mind immediately went to just how bad it could have been if that tire had started to come undone in that environment. My babies were in the backseat. My entire family and world was in that car, and we had no idea we were traveling on a highway named Deadman’s Pass missing a lug nut and the others starting to loosen. 

Sam noticed I was silently crying, and thought I was doubtful of the car’s ability to get us home. That wasn’t it at all. I was crying because I was blown away with gratitude by the Lord. There is absolutely nothing I could have done to predict a tire problem. I was completely blind to it as we drove over a mountain, marveling at the epic view and the heart-pounding drop-offs with nothing but a guardrail between the highway and sheer nothing. I was unaware of God’s hands holding my family and keeping us all safe.

The humbling truth is that He is always in control and He’s always holding His people in His hand. And if the Lord ordained for my family to die on that mountain, we would have. If He deemed the tire to come clean off the truck and for us to get in an accident we would have.

Most people would read this and say, “How could God will something like that? If He’s a good God, then how could he let something tragic like that happen?”

That’s something many people struggle with, but the truth is, if we believe God to be sovereign, supreme, and all-knowing, then to say that God is in control of some things and not in control of others would be contradictory. In Genesis 50, Joseph stands before the brothers that betrayed him and sold him off to Egypt. Their father just died and the brothers become worried that Joseph still holds a grudge against them for what they did as boys. Wracked with guilt, the brothers come up with a scheme to gain Joseph’s forgiveness.

When Joseph sees them he says, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:19b-20, NIV)

Essentially, Joseph himself acknowledges that God ordained every terrible thing that happened to him– being sold into slavery, being thrown in jail, enduring a lifetime of lost time with his family– so that Joseph’s gifts could be used to save many lives from a famine.

Essentially, God ordains all. He ordains the good and the bad, and the bad that He sovereignly ordains serves a purpose so that His goodness and glory can be seen and displayed.

And in a very humbling God moment, I thanked the Lord that He would choose to keep my family safe in that moment. That He would sovereignly deem that the wheel to our truck would hold together up the mountain, down the mountain, through endless, isolated fields, and be noticed at a time where we could safely come to a stop and correct it. I was reminded that even when I am unaware of it, even when I am forgetful, I am forever in the palm of my Savior’s hand, who continues to save me and my family day after day, for I would be powerless and hopeless to live one day outside of His grace.

I am deeply thankful to the Lord that you are reading my words today, friends. I am thankful to serve a God who never sleeps or fails to keep His people, and a Lord who shields, holds, and loves us all.