THANKFUL NOTHING HAPPENED

"Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (I Thessalonians 5:16-18)

There are pros and cons to owning and driving a very old car with high mileage. On the positive side, you don't have a depressing car payment to make each month. And, you truly own the car; a finance company or bank doesn't own it. On the negative side, you feel like classic television's Lt. Columbo! You pull up in this small, foreign eighteen-year-old junker, and people look at you like you're half crazy! And, on the negative side, you never know what can and will go wrong with the car! You can get a shocking surprise without any warning.

On Tuesday of this week as I was driving along, I noticed an orange light on in the dash area. At first, I thought I had forgotten to turn off the rear window defroster. Upon giving a quick look, that was not the issue; rather, my CHECK ENGINE light was on. During the past four months, the CHECK ENGINE light has come on briefly a few times, for no more than ten minutes at a whack, and then gone out. Until this week, it was only when I was going above forty-five miles per hour. On Tuesday, it stayed on for over a half hour; no matter what speed I did. I stopped the car and started up a few times and the CHECK ENGINE light was still on. I figured it was on for the long haul this time- that six months from now it would still be on- that it would involve some sort of costly repair which would not be worth doing to this car. Well, to my surprise, after the car sat for a few hours and I was driving it again, I noticed THE LIGHT WAS NOT ON ANY MORE! It has not been back! I realize it COULD come back again, but I'm very thankful it went out!

Yesterday, I had another little scare with the 1995 Subaru Impreza. I was driving along Route 27 "northbound" from the Canton, MA area to the Framingham, MA area. At the Sherborn/Medfield line I suddenly distinctively smelled the smell of burning plastic. Whether in a car or in your house THAT is a smell you don't want to smell! (About twenty years ago, Mary Ann and I woke up smelling burning plastic throughout the house. That necessitated a call to the Framingham Fire Dept. and a fire engine and firefighters coming out. It turned out that a relay had shorted out in a freezer in the basement. The basement was filled with smoke with a burning plastic smell- the smell had permeated the entire house!) I really wondered if smoke would suddenly start pouring out from under the hood and then I'd pull to the side of the road and the car would burst into flames. Well, after I drove a mile, the smell was still there, but about half the intensity. I drove another mile, and there was only the faintest burning plastic smell. I drove still another mile and there was no smell at all. There has not been any smell since then. I wonder if I was smelling something OUTDOORS at the Sherborn/Medfield town line area, or if I was smelling something coming from another car. As with the CHECK ENGINE light situation, I was glad this turned out to be a "false alarm".

Many years ago during a Sunday night service I was leading, I was taking vocal testimonies. One of our church's Board Members, Bill Lincoln raised his hand and said, "I thank God that nothing happened." He then went on to explain what he meant...that we face challenges and dangers every day. There could and probably are countless incidents where God and His angels protect us that we are not even aware of! Honestly, Bill is right. We forget so many times to thank God that "nothing happened". AND, we sometimes forget to thank Him when seemingly scary things happening to a car or a computer or other technical device turn out to be nothing. So, today I'm "thankful nothing happened"!