I’ve
locked my keys in my car (actually it was my mom’s mini-van) three times in my
life that I can remember. The first time
I was with my girlfriend (my wife now) at the restaurant her mother worked at
and my dad had to drive 15 miles down to Santo to open the door for me. The other two times were kind of weird
though. The second time I was at work (Braum’s)
in Weatherford waiting for my shift to start.
I was in college at the time and I was finished with my classes for that
day, but didn’t want to drive all the way back to Mineral Wells (about 30
minutes away). I locked my car with the
key inside along with my uniform and well, that sucked. It just so happened though that my manager
had a locksmith out there working on the safe and while he was there he opened
the door for me at no charge(I gave him a free ice cream cone though, please
don’t tell Mr. Braum). I guess it was
probably just a coincidence, right? The
third time was also in Weatherford, I
was on my way to fort worth to get fitted for a tuxedo for my wedding and I
stopped at the post office for something(can’t remember what though). I left the key sitting right on the console
island thing in between the front seats (what the hell?!?!). So I’m standing there cussing at myself and I
look up and see a locksmith truck sitting two cars over. I called the number on the side of the truck
and the guy answered from inside the post office (cell phones are a beautiful
thing). He came out and unlocked the
car, also for free. I know that if I had
had to call these guys out to me it would have cost at least $30 and even
though they were already there they had every right to charge me anyway. They didn’t though and for that they are
awesome in my book (I mean if I had a book).
I know a
lot of people who might try to read more into this than what is probably there. How are we supposed to know when it’s just
coincidence or when it’s actually God helping out? When we interpret every good thing that
happens to us as God the outside world looks at us like we are irrational
illogical weirdoes. I believe that God
is there watching, but maybe sometimes people just use their God given free
will to decide to do good things just because they are the right things to do.
I’ve
always felt like I was somehow being watched out for and I’ve had an overall
feeling that everything was going to turn out okay. I know I’ve had a very blessed life as far as
good parents, friends, family, school, and even jobs are concerned. Every now and then I’ll do something out of
the ordinary for me (I am a creature of habit) and something good will come
from it. It’s usually something small
but it’s always enough for me to stop and take notice. I’ll run it through my head and question why I
broke my routine and if the reward was because of that or would it have
happened anyway. I can’t really think of
any specific example of this occurring right now but I know it has happened to
me many many times throughout my life. These
random feelings that everything is going to be alright have come to me less and
less over the years and they almost completely went away when my daughter was
born. That’s when I got scared (I’ve
always been scared, but this was more than ever before). Do you know how many things can go wrong with
a child? I’m going to say approximately somewhere between 1 and 100 billion
different things. When Amira was about 2
she was standing at the window of our trailer holding onto the windowsill and
the open window closed on her fingers.
Now this is not a regular wooden window frame that would have smashed
her fingers. It was a metal frame inside
of a metal track so that it would seal.
It probably should have chopped her tiny fingers off. It didn’t, she was fine. I, on the other hand, was hysterical. I called my mom freaking out and she and Nancy
came over to see how she was and there didn’t seem to be any permanent
damage. Maybe that was a miracle and
maybe I just overestimated the strength of the window. Who knows?
My
point is that there are a million different things that happen to all of us
every day and I just don’t know how I’m supposed to interpret them. I like the feeling that everything is going
to be alright but lately it’s been replaced with a hopelessness that everything
is going to end. Which is a happy
thought for some of you so there you go.
Eric Anderson
I don't believe in coincidence. I believe everything happens for a reason and I try to figure out what that is. Sometimes I'm just left with..."I wonder why..." I do relate to your concerns with Amira. I worried myself silly when Vanessa was really little. Especially when she went to her dad's for the weekend. I learned how to keep going to God and learning to trust her into His care.
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