Not the Nail

When I was little my parents told me a story about a man who was fixing his roof. He climbed up to the apex of his roof and began patching a hole. It was hard work and as he began to get tired he got a little careless. Suddenly he lost his balance and began to tumble down the roof! The man's first instinct was to pray, begging his Heavenly Father to save his life. Suddenly, in mid-prayer his pants caught on a nail and he stopped falling! Relieved he prayed, "Never-mind God, this nail saved me."

This story has stuck with me for a long time. Maybe Bryce got a good score on the GRE with his own great brain; maybe I found a great job during a recession without any help; maybe our car started because a random connection dried out by chance, just as we finished our prayer; Maybe my own lesson planning made my Sunday School lesson a success; maybe it was luck that we happened upon a couple whose car was stuck in the snow; maybe we were never exposed to Swine Flu when we had no health insurance; maybe it was the nail, but I don't believe it.

This past Friday I didn't have work, (which is a tender mercy in its own right!) I planned to make some cookies to bring to the German class that Bryce teaches, but first I went with him in the morning to help with one of his assignments. Bryce went to his class and I hiked down to the car to head home and make cookies. When I located the car I realized, to my chagrin, that I had taken the Honda key off my keychain earlier that week (something I do not usually do.)

With no other option I began the trek back up to Bryce's class to get his key. Class wouldn't be over for another 38 minutes and I was hungry so I stopped by the Jamba Juice. While I was in there a lady came in, a little upset, looking for a pay phone to get a hold of her son that she was supposed to be meeting. I started to tell her that there are courtesy phones in most lobbies on campus when I suddenly realized, "Hey! You have a phone right here!" So I leant her my cell phone and she found her son.

I will probably never see this lady again, but on that Friday several unusual events fell into place to put us together at just the right time. I think Heavenly Father was looking out for his daughters knowing that one of us needed help finding her son, and one of us needed a chance to serve, so she would stop feeling sorry for herself because she had to walk back up to campus. :)