All Things work for good. Another story from Nancy
Eight days earlier, Don and I had parked the car at the USA/Canada border crossing. We were flush with documentation, healthy, and trusting God for an exemption to the travel-mandated quarantine.
The slightly overweight guard, a mask plastered over his beard, darted back and forth between our SUV and the computer in his kiosk. Asking questions. Entering data. Issuing covid test kits. Leaning into our car window to explain the rules for our 14-day quarantine. Reminding us that change happens at the ballot box. And finally, welcoming us home with a pained expression on his face.
Locked in our own world, we drove north. The stunning beauty of the Okanagan Valley with its cherry blossoms, quaint farms, and vineyards flew by our car, but I was numb. Like one returning to a childhood home owned by someone else now, I felt detached.
A card detailing quarantine rules and penalties perched like an intruder in my cup holder. Head and shoulders turned away from my husband; I slouched in the passenger’s seat. Instead of my usual prattling on about everything, I was silent. God’s will was cutting across mine.
The clock was ticking. My attitude was negative, complaining and dangerous, and I knew it. Reaching down, I grasped the scruff of my soul’s neck and yanked it up from the car floor, where it lay buried underneath the covid test kits.
Shifting back and forth in my seat as we rounded the mountain corners, I closed my eyes. Like a child surrendering a broken toy to her father, I thrust my questions heavenward and exchanged them for the Truth that sets free.
Sanity and wisdom began to trickle, then flow into my cranky disillusioned heart. Erect, leaning against the headrest, my eyes were wide open. Guarded on either side by ponderosa pines crowded together on jagged hills, Okanagan Lake sliced up the valley like a long crooked scar. Evening hues of blue, green, and grey glazed over everything, transforming everything.
On Day 8, confined at home, I was ready for Alex, the twenty-something government “observer” who appeared on my computer screen to validate my required, at-home covid test. We sprinted through the formalities—swabbing, labeling, and packaging my sample precisely as directed.
Then Alex and I veered off-topic. He had never understood that one could be sure of having eternal life through faith in Christ alone. God had been expecting us. Only because I had to go through this covid stress did I have the chance to share with this young man.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 nasb)
