The Goodness of God

I was recently inspired by one of Andy and Cath’s recent Let’s Talk podcasts, which was about the goodness of God and how, whatever is going on in our lives, His goodness remains the same. On hearing these words, I was very excited about something that happened to my wife Lynne and myself over the Christmas period.

We were getting ready to spend Christmas down south with our family. On the day we were due to leave, we spent the morning cleaning up the house and getting our packing sorted. As is often the case, we were running later than usual. We were planning to leave at 11 am, but instead finally got out at 2 pm, ready for the five-to-six-hour journey ahead.

We turned the corner of our road and then stopped, in order to pop into our local newsagent for some Maltesers (which I love to eat whilst driving). As it was only a short stop, we parked across someone’s driveway, the only available space near the shop.

I say a short stop, but our car had other ideas. It completely packed up and refused to budge. So, we called the RAC and waited. It was going to be at least another hour.

With this sudden change in expectation, I was surprisingly resigned to it and was quite peaceful. After the mad rush of the morning, it was rather nice to settle into His presence and to spend some time in prayer. Lynne nipped back to the house to get some things done there.

However, what could have been a bit of a nuisance situation turned out to be a threefold blessing!

Firstly, the owner of the house returned. I apologised to him and offered to push the car out of the way (with help). He was incredibly nice about it all (saying that we needn’t move the car) and it turned out that not only was he a Christian, but we had mutual friends. He went off towards his house, then stopped and returned, offering a cup of tea.

Secondly, when the RAC people arrived, they too were so gracious and helpful. They replaced our car battery and then it transpired that our oil also was very low. If we had continued as in the first instance, we may have encountered a more serious problem later on.

Thirdly, when we did finally get going, around 4.30 pm, it turned out that this was the best time for the traffic. Apparently, earlier on, there had been traffic problems on the M25, but by the time we arrived, it was completely clear.

When we reached my mother’s house at 9 pm, not only were we not frustrated, but we were buzzing with it all.