My Grandpa’s Story – The Tire
So, my grandpa is 92 years old! He is slowing down a bit but overall doing very well. While he has not served God all of his life, God has always had his hand on him. I know him to be a Godly grandfather. I grew up with him telling me first-hand “God stories”. I found myself even in the last few years, sitting on the floor near him as he spoke of “God things”! The times in his life that he felt a supernatural God had intervened on his behalf into a natural world. AKA: A MIRACLE! There are many, many stories but I wanted to share a simple favorite today.
As I share my grandpa’s stories, it always reminds of the old song by The Judds, Grandpa.
There was a time in my grandfather’s younger married years that he was traveling down highway 99 in Northern California, by Modesto, with his family. Best time estimate was in the 1950’s. This portion of the highway is still pretty rural but particularly back then it was all farm land on both sides as far as the eye can see. The traffic flow was not what it is today and this was not at all a good place to break down when he got a flat tire. Of course, he did not have a spare. (Yikes, this is waaaay before cell phones!) He looked all around and there was really nothing around, just open fields.
This was truly a dire situation, with nowhere in sight to walk too, they were stuck!
My grandpa did what many of us might do in a situation like this. HE PRAYED. As he was praying, he felt like God was telling him to start walking out into one of the open fields. He didn’t know why, thought it was odd but with no other options, he obeyed. He walked way out in the field, wondering the whole time “what the heck” he was doing! As he shares it was quite a walk! All of the sudden, out of the blue and very misplaced in the middle of nowhere, he sees two tires! …Wait, What?…Ohhhh, God is good! He feels like God is telling him to take one particular tire but he didn’t like that one. He shares that the “other” one had more tread on it so he decided to take that one instead.
He’s amazed that God is intervening in his life as he carries and rolls that old tire back to his car by the road. He gets it there and in all his rejoicing he tries to put it on the car only to discover, it’s the wrong size and doesn’t fit!
He ‘is so frustrated! But only has one choice and that’s to hike it back out to where he left the other tire and get that one. It was a long walk! After walking all the way back to and from the field, rolling and carrying the other tire …. you know the” first” one that God told him to take. He finds that it’s a perfect fit!
I absolutely love this story! Here is my grandfather in the middle of a full miracle. A weird, amazing true miracle! One definition of a miracle is an “extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs”. Here, he is in the middle of a supernatural event and KNOWS God is working on his behalf, but his human nature still kicks in and he decides in this moment that he knows better than God! Even in his miracle my grandfather was going primarily on what he saw, “more tread and a better looking tire”, but God knew what my grandfather didn’t, that the good looking tire wasn’t the right fit. I find this whole story so incredible. Here, my grandfather, prayed, trusted God, knew his voice, trusted enough to walk out in the field and then he decides he knows better! My grandpa always chuckles at this part of the story. I take comfort in so many elements of this story. God heard his prayer, God cared, God intervened and with all that my faith filled grandpa still thought he knew better. I can’t help but think God enjoyed a good chuckle with my grandfather that day! I like to remember this story when I am tempted to think God doesn’t care about the small things in our life. Be encouraged; just like he cared about my grandfather’s flat tire that day, he cares for you and I.
Psalms 37:23 tells us, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly, he delights in every detail of their lives.”
I love it when scripture comes alive! I love it when we see God intervene!
So, to know God cares about the details of our lives sure makes it easier to ask. But let’s remember my grandpa when we are in the middle of our miracle, and take “the tire” God tells us to take the first time!
