Miracle Mechanic

We have been blessed with Brenda's suburban. We have driven it for the past 12 years. It has been paid off a long time. We have traveled to Missouri, Arkansas, and all over the state of Texas on family vacations and ministry assignments. That vehicle has taken teenagers to youth camp, men on mission trips, and even made three moves. It has faithfully carried our family for a long time. Our boys were little when we bought it on monthly installments. Now they are grown men. Each time we all travel together we are thankful for that suburban.

Over the years we have several mechanical repairs to keep the vehicle running right. Two weeks ago we had to put it in the shop again. Several parts needed to be replaced. We needed it to drive me to several preaching assignments over the past month.

On Saturday Brenda said it began making a really horrible noise. That frustrated me because we just got it out of the shop. Three months before that we got it out of the shop again after some major repairs. She and I drove it Sunday for the two churches that scheduled me to preach. I heard the awful noise but had no idea what it meant. We met some friends for lunch. The husband and I drove it but he could not identify the problem either. The horrible noise grew worse the more we drove it.

We made it to the church that night. My friend drove it and had the keys. He got a mechanic in the church to drive it before the service to see if he could identify the problem. I did not even know this took place right before the service began. I had other more pressing issues on my mind.

Five minutes before the service began my friend and the mechanic approached me. They had bad news. The u-joint was going out. I don't even know what a u-joint is how it functions. The mechanic went on to explain the suburban was not safe to drive. The problem was severe. The very least we could end up stranded. At worst the issue could cause a car crash.

Brenda and I were well over forty miles from home. That was not the news I wanted to hear right before I was to preach. To compound matters I did not know what I was supposed to preach. They suggested I leave the vehicle and borrow another car to get home that night while they took care of getting the suburban to a shop. I dismissed the whole thing and focused on the task at hand of bragging on God.

At the end of the service the mechanic approached me. He said, "I could not focus the whole service. All I kept thinking is that we should have worked on this while the service was going on." He made an offer I could not believe. He offered to repair it himself that night while we went to eat dinner. He thought the whole job would take him an hour and a half after he got the parts. With that he was off and running.

After dinner when we arrived back in the church parking lot we got word the mechanic had just finished and was on his way. Just like that the car was repaired. Another miracle. Another dramatic way God provided for my family. The mechanic identified anther major issue we are about to face but for the time being he got the car running safely. Neither he nor my friend let me pay for the parts or for the labor, which to be honest I probably could not have afforded. They said the church took care of it. Humbling. Gratitude and praise filled my heart.

I got up and said, "Praise God." I thanked the mechanic and my friend for serving my family on such a cold night. I quietly thanked God for once again preserving my family. I thanked Him for protecting Brenda and I on all our preaching travels over the past two months. The mechanic showed me the part. Completely worn out. I silently thanked God for His provision in a miracle mechanic and another fix on an old faithful car that has carried us nearly 300,000 miles. I thanked Him for His faithfulness to my family by putting in the heart of a mechanic to become a minister and an agent of His miraculous intervention on behalf of my family. All on a night I spent bragging on God. I did not know another miracle was in the making right before my eyes. We did not ask for help. God sent it anyway in the form of a miracle mechanic. Praise God's holy name.