God With Skin On

Looking back on true God moments, there is simply no denying a force bigger than ourselves loves us so much, as to know when we need Him most to manifest in human form...God with skin on. This is one such time.

It was early winter of 1994, and my first ever driving in snow. It had been a difficult year, with my mom dying of cancer, the conclusion of an ugly child custody case, and an even uglier fallout with my often-inebriated grieving father; the catalyst for our relocation from Tennessee to Ohio.

In a series of events that danced with undesired fluidity, my husband and I both received job offers on the same day, a Friday. Both with the same starting date, the following Monday. Timing that did not allow for me to get ALL the necessary contingency plans set up for my children's day care and after-school supervision.

I wasn't overly concerned on that first day, until paralyzed with the realization that I could not get to them, contact them, or even know when I might be able to. It was frightening to a degree I cannot articulate. That feeling of fear still seems trapped in my stomach, where butterfly wings scatter my thoughts before they can flutter through fingers to page.

A heavy snowstorm had rolled in unexpectedly, and due to a jack-knifed big rig, the freeway, and the only route home I was even vaguely familiar with, was grid-locked. I became sicker and sicker as the seconds ticked off to minutes, endlessly flying by and turning into hours of not moving, not getting closer to my waiting children. My 9 year old son was home watching his six year old brother, you know, just for the short time until I got home! My 4 year old daughter was, likely, the last one waiting at day care for a mom who was not showing up.

I am not a shy person by nature, and desperate times call for an even bolder personality. So, at the moment when my car lined up next to someone on a cell phone, something I would have given my husband's left arm for at the time, I laid on my horn like a mad woman. Someone, I'm thinking God, must have given this kind stranger a reassuring nudge for him to even contemplate rolling down his window and encountering me, for I must have appeared deranged ten times over, which was about ten times less deranged than I felt.

My many phone calls were placed, with this angel of mercy as my intercessor, and I had peace knowing my mother-in-law would soon be with my boys, and that my daughter was safe and warm and at that moment enjoying a hot dog and chips for her dinner. Anxious, but no longer panicked about the safety of my children, I had unfortunately nowhere to turn but my own predicament.

So unfamiliar with Ohio at the time, I wasn't even sure how far my only known exit ramp was up the freeway, and certainly no idea how long it'd take me to get there. Naturally my fear and panic returned when the low fuel light mockingly flicked on. I inched my way through the virtually unyielding grace of my fellow strandee's, and saw an exit.

Though I had no earthly clue where I would end up, I discerned, through nothing more supernatural than common sense, that running out of gas off the freeway was immeasurably better than running out of gas on the freeway, and would be less likely to ignite a slushy road rage situation.

It took forever to reach the end of the seemingly, and interminably, long off-ramp but, even though I was years from following Jesus, I praised His name when I was greeted with the warm glow of a Shell gas station sign!

In I pull, and with the $10.00 cash in my pocket, I purchased $5.00 worth of gas...this was back when $5.00 of gas actually moved the needle on your gauge, and with the other $5.00, a pack of cigarettes. I know, I know, but I was in such a state at that moment. Remember my husband's left arm? In my frame of mind, his right arm would have been in serious danger as well.

Never from from my mind during this time of temporary respite was the very stark reality that I had no idea where I was, and how I was going to get home. My spirits were dampened even further, at a time I would have thought that impossible, when the station attendant informed me that my quickest way home was via country roads; ones I was sure my virgin snow driving skills would not fare well on.

With images of impending doom flashing through my mind, I turned to walk out the door, to get back in my car and white-knuckle my way home. Before the door finished shushing closed, a sweet familiar voice rang out, one that had always given my stomach different kinds of butterflies, "Give me $5.00 on pump 9."

I have never in my life, before or since, felt fear and uncertainty dispatch with greater swiftness than when I turned to see the face of my husband...God with skin on.

To this day, even now with the sharing of this story, I still get chills when I think about a God that knows me so intimately, and loves me so much, that He brought to me, through His compassion and providential care, the only earthly person I would feel safe with. The only one I trusted to get me safely home to my children. I fell into his arms, tears streaming down my face, and found comfort.

Only the sovereign hand of God could have orchestrated my rescue so perfectly.

You see, although Daniel and I were both traveling on Interstate 71 North towards our exit at Polaris Parkway, I started out only 7 miles south of the exit, but my husband was coming from Cincinnati, over 100 miles south. Neither our departure or arrival times had been discussed or coordinated. Both Daniel and I had to get off the freeway or risk running out of gas.

I took an unknown exit with an unknown end in sight. Daniel took that same exit because he knew his remaining gas would likely not last in standstill traffic to the next exit 3 miles ahead...the exit that would have taken us both home.

More incredible still is the fact that the Shell store sat squarely between the pumps where our respective cars were parked. Me on one side, he on the other. If I had been even a few seconds quicker, or Daniel a few seconds slower, the door would have closed behind me and I would have driven off into the shadows of night, frightened and alone.

God's word tells us that He is with us always, and that He cares about our every need. If I ever forget that, God helps me to remember this cold snowy night, when out of the darkness He came, with skin on, to light my way home.

Fun Fact: My husband would end up working for Shell 2 plus decades after we found each other under warm glow of their logo! This brings Proverbs 16:9 to mind..."We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps."