In my dreams, I guess I’ve always thought of myself as more of a country girl than a city girl. I picture myself on a little wooden swing hanging from a big tree; and as I swing back and forth my pigtails are blowing back and forth wildly in the wind. Ah…
I’d love to have larger than a little speck of a back yard with neighbors crammed in on both sides. And a couple of dogs running around loose, and I’m not worried about them bugging anybody. Just wonderful peace and quiet.
Notice I said “in my dreams?”
I was reminded the other day that as much as I dream of being a country girl, I guess I’m not.
Back a couple months ago I wrote about when we were moving from an outskirt of Seattle to a small town in Central Oregon (Becoming Small-Towners). Gary and I had visited the area on more than one occasion, and had fallen in love with the beauty and the slower-paced lifestyle. We just couldn’t wait to start our new lives, and God blessed us with a beautiful new home, a wonderful church, and a high school for Jeffrey which was amazing.
We kept hearing from a lot of our new friends there about a lake not too far away called Lake Billy Chinook, so one summer weekend we decided to pack up a small picnic and take a day trip to look around that area.
Wow, it was indeed gorgeous!
We found a place where we were able to spread out with our lunch which overlooked the lake. From our vantage point we spotted a road that seemed to wind around the lake, so after we ate we packed up, got back in our van, and decided to take a drive on that road to see where it went.
Around and around we drove – where would we end up? The best we could guess, it looked like the road was heading down towards a little town called Sisters. Today we would have had our cell phones with us, but back then we had no GPS-system whatsoever glued to our hips – we were explorers!
So on and on we went, then what happens? Our gas light goes on – we were almost out of gas! No problem, we thought, we’re sure to end up in a town where we can fill up soon.
As we rounded another turn we saw some road signs up ahead. Aha – we must be getting close to civilization!
We headed towards the signs, and “surprise!” One of the signs informed us that the paved road was going to be ending soon; and the second sign told us we were indeed heading towards Sisters, but it was 25 miles away on a gravel road!
Oh no… Gary and I were starting to freak. There was no way we could make it that far; we needed to turn around and try and make it back to Lake Billy Chinook to see if we could find gas there.
All of a sudden our sweet Jeffrey who had been sitting calmly in the back seat informs us that he was certain he’d seen a gas pump a short way back, outside of a little store in the middle of nowhere.
Gary and I, being the mature grownups that we were, weren’t so sure, but we all started praying, and turned the van around to head back to where we came from.
As we drove, we noticed something. Our gas gauge, which had before been going down quickly all of a sudden seemed stuck at 1/8 tank.
Father, is that You helping us? We were sure it had to have been.
Finally we rounded a corner, and sure enough, there was the gas pump Jeffrey remembered. And, it was operational!
We got our gas, congratulating Jeffrey for noticing the gas station when neither of us had.
Just as an “FYI,” it was about 95 degrees outside that day, and if we would have run out of gas who knows how long it would have taken to have someone drive by us to help. Plus we hadn’t even brought along extra water!
So going back to my opening comment, as much as I love the thought of being a country girl, right now the thought of knowing that you’re close to modern conveniences is where I need to live.
But maybe I just need some training???
The God Of All Comfort 