Protection from the Lord when we don't know to ask

This is one of the amazing things about knowing God: That He protects us all the time, whether we know to ask His help or not.

Yesterday Britta took our car out to Lonning's Landing, a private campground on the Upper Iowa River, where she met with friends to go tubing. On the way home she took the car on a dirt road. Being an inexperienced driver, when she came to a large bump in the middle of the road, she decided the best thing to do was to straddle it. Somehow she says she didn't realize that she scraped the bottom of the car with that bump. What she did was rip the bottom out of the car! It started leaking power steering fluid, and she didn't notice. She drove home, changed clothes and then drove to La Crosse, not bothering to mention what she had done. So we did not know to pray specifically about this. I was nervous for some reason and did pray (as I usually do when she is out with the car) for her safety, but it was nothing unusual or specific, just my general Mommy anxiety.

The door burst open at about 10:30 last night to our daughter yelling, "Dad! There's something wrong with the car! The wheel won't move!" We went outside to find the Concorde stopped in the street right in front of the driveway, with smoke coming out from under the hood. She was right, the wheel would not turn -- because the power steering system was drained completely! There was fluid all over under the car. When Barry looked underneath, the whole front pan thing just underneath the front bumper panel was pushed back about 6 inches. Somehow the radiator still had fluid.

So this is what the Lord did: He kept the power steering working all the way back from Lonning's Landing (10 miles or so), then all the way to La Crosse and back (another 50 miles), all along winding river roads with sharp dropoffs on the sides and water beneath, not allowing the power steering to quit working until she was at the bottom of her own driveway. This is absolutely a miracle. She should have lost her steering on the road somewhere and ended up slammed into a tree, or under water, or scraped against one of the limestone cliffs that they cut to make the river roads. (I am still scared thinking of it.)

We are also thankful to have good car insurance. Once again I recommend Progressive. They are fast and efficient, and they are kind.