God's Involvement In The Small Things

Thank you for the great response to yesterday's post.  A bunch of you had fun with my Buda story that accompanied the pictures.
🤣 🤣 

God's Involvement In The Small Things
Many people believe that God created the world but takes no active interest in it. They are certain that God does not involve Himself in the affairs of His creation. 

I obviously do not buy into that. I am quite sure we serve a God that is intimately aware of every aspect in our lives and cares deeply for every human.

It is true that man has chosen sin and therefore sin reigns in this world for now. Bad, bad, bad things happen in this world because of 6000 years of sin, horrible choices by humanity and the near complete rejection of God by the creation He loves so much.

I can not fathom all the sin and evil in the world and I will never understand why we constantly choose evil. It is difficult to comprehend why God has not kicked the whole mess into hell and started over.

It must be love. For God so loved the world! Yes, in the midst of evil and moral decay, God still works in our world, our society and even our individual lives, because of His love. 

I see Him at work in very small aspects of our lives. I see Him at work in the lives of people that openly deny God or even say that they hate God. 

Yet, He still cares for us and pursues us. That speaks of His love for His creation. Praise God for that.

One Small Example

Driving from Ohio to Pine Prairie, Louisiana brought back a distinct example to us. We have been to Pine Prairie many times over the nearly 12 years we have been coming here but we have only driven the route from Ohio to here one other time.

On the way here we turn off I-20 about 165 miles from Pine Prairie. From there it is mostly two lane roads with nice wide shoulders except for about 20 miles of I-49 south of Alexandria.

From I-20 we go south on 65 until Ferriday, Louisiana, turn right on 84 and about miles later turn left on 28. From there it is a straight shot to the north side of Alexandria. We were following that route in 2009 when we arrived in the small town of Ferriday. I really needed to stop and could find no place to get the bus off the road.

I made the turn on 84 and pulled off the side of the road on the shoulder, right in town. I was not completely off the road but I turned on the hazards. We were rolling again in about 2 minutes.

After 30 miles we turned left on 28. About 10-15 miles later we came upon a terrible accident on a narrow two lane bridge. The accident had just happened. There were only 2-4 cars in front of us including a truck and a fifth wheel. There were no first responders there yet at all. I am confident the accident was probably less than 2-3 minutes old.

You can see in the pictures below that the shoulders are eliminated on the bridge.

The accident was on the bridge above and covered the bridge from one concrete edge to the other. From our side it looked like a huge pile of metal and I could distinguish no vehicles at all. I could hear the people on the other end of the bridge, that were stuck in traffic like we were, trying to help people from the wreckage but none of us on our side could get over there.

In a few minutes there were police, ambulances and fire trucks coming from both directions. We had all pulled over to the shoulders to let them through. The first responders on our end of the bridge were nearly helpless to do anything other than making sure no fires erupted.

After an hour or so the police told us the bridge would be closed for many hours and recommended we turn around, go back to 84 and take about an hour detour into Alexandria. Once the cars were turned around, I unhooked Mr. Cheap Jeep and performed about a 15 point turn.

By the time I was exactly sideways in the road, the bumper of the BoggsMobile was in the grass on either side. IF there had been guardrails on the edge of the shoulders, we would not have been able to turn around.

I looked up the accident the next day and was not surprised to learn that two men in one vehicle were killed and others in both vehicles were seriously injured. IF my memory serves me correctly the two men killed and one of the seriously injured men were all brothers.

We were looking for correct bridge as we were coming through this past Saturday. We were about 90% sure this was the one as we were approaching it and the two crosses next to the bridge confirmed it.

That was a tragic day for many people. It marked them for the rest of their lives because of what they lost in one random moment on a wide open stretch of straight highway.

The accident was a minor inconvenience for us. We lost two hours or so out of our day.

Yet, we are convinced it could have been a life changing day for us as well. Without that two minute emergency stop about 40 miles back, we could have been directly involved in the original collision or traveling so close behind the vehicles that wrecked, that we could have plowed into the carnage creating even more death and destruction.

I will forever be convinced that God is intimately involved in our lives, even the very small seemingly insignificant things. It is written very plainly all through His Word. Here is one example.

Matthew 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
 27  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The Bible says it and I have confirmed it through personal experience. Look around you, friend. You will find God at work in your life.

Thank you for reading.

Davy

Vintage View Vednesday Grand Canyon 2003

This is our very first Vintage View Vednesday post. It comes with a bonus funny story for kicks and grins. Do not expect funny stories with every picture post. Some of them are too embarrassing to share with millions of readers!😳

I mentioned back in December that we would be posting pictures from our archives on Wednesdays and this is our first installment. I am going to try to post a few pictures each Wednesday until we run out of pictures or interest, whichever comes LAST.😏 

This post takes us back to the Grand Canyon in November 2003. We had closed revival for Pastor Richard Frank near Keller, Texas the week before. We left our trailer there and drove the truck to preach revival at Desert Cove Assembly for Pastor Billy Mills. We stopped in Flagstaff, Arizona and vacationed four days on the way.

One of those days in Flagstaff, we drove up to the Grand Canyon. It was an gorgeous day to visit a beautiful place!

The first picture above was taken from the south overlook at the Grand Canyon. We had something hilarious happen to us at that overlook and I believe it was on this very visit.

We were viewing from the top, which is the only overlook that Odie can access at that point in a wheelchair. It is a wonderful vantage point but there are other viewing platforms lower down that you access by stairs.

We left Odie sitting there and Kelly Jo and I ventured down to the lower platforms that extend a little farther out into the canyon.

Odie has always been able to make friends with a fence post so it was no surprise when we came back that she was having a conversation with two ladies. It was a limited conversation since the ladies only spoke about 50 words of English and Odie spoke absolutely NO Chinese.

The lack of understanding was not much of a barrier because the friendship seemed to be off to a great start. By the time we arrived, the ladies knew where we were from, what we did for a living and Odie's age. Odie knew they were part of a group tour, they were having a fabulous time in the US and they loved the Grand Canyon.

When Kelly Jo and I walked up, the ladies excitedly jumped up and greeted us with warm smiles and animated gesturing. They wanted Odie to take a picture of us and them in front of the canyon with their camera.

As we posed, the two ladies maneuvered themselves on either side of me and Kelly Jo on the end. What happened next was priceless.

Kelly Jo and I thought everything was set for the picture. Then the ladies began to motion (Push) Kelly Jo to move aside and for them to get their picture with me alone.

They posed on either side of me, put one hand each on my big belly and smiled the biggest smiles we had ever seen. We were so blown away and laughing so hard that we completely forgot to snap a picture with Odie's camera. Oh, how I wish I had that picture!

Some where in Hong Kong or the mainland of China there are two older ladies still showing a picture of their trip to the US when they met a fat Buda lookalike dressed in jeans, a casual long sleeve shirt and a Big Dog vest!

That day has given us many, many laughs all these years and I imagine it will continue to entertain us for a long time to come.

I do not know the back story on this next picture but I suspect Kelly Jo was trying and succeeding in entertaining Odie!

I hope you enjoyed the vintage pictures. Let us know what you think. There are many more to come. 

Davy

The Heat Is On!

Saturday we passed a big milestone in finishing the house for Odie to live in. Yay!!! The house now has central heat and air!

Dad and Steve spent most of the day at the house overseeing the work. I was able to drive Saturday and go about the process of getting everything into place for revival because they left me nothing to worry about. I can not tell you what a blessing and help that is.

Our HVAC contractor, Jeff, brought a crew of men and went right to work. They had to set the inside unit, set the outside unit, finish the duct work between the inside unit and the ceiling, run and connect the copper, hook up the electrical inside and out, put in the vent covers and hook up the thermostat.

You will see in the pictures below that there is a 4" hole in the outside block. I think that is Jeff feeding the copper lines through the opening and up into the slab floor to the inside unit. That was a dandy idea to put that pipe in before pouring the slab. It saved a lot of work Saturday and will make replacement easier if necessary in the future.

I do not know how they decided who would work on the outside unit but it was a very cold day so I am sure his job was pretty miserable. Everyone stayed right with it until the job was complete.

They did have some delay because of a faulty thermostat but the furnace was blowing nice warm air by the end of the day. Jeff will come back with a thermostat and install a vent in the side of the inside unit and then it will be completed.

Dad checked everything on Sunday and Monday. The house is cozy warm. Hallelujah! I really should have had Jeff complete this before the first hint of winter but I made the best decisions I could at the time. I am very glad it is done now.

Steve served as the official photographer for the final stage of the HVAC project and the pictures are below. I hope you enjoy. We sure were happy to see these pictures!

As soon as the outside temperatures warm up a little, the installation of the siding should begin. It is beginning to look good.

Thank you for stopping in to read today.

Davy