Late last evening, we locked ourselves out of our car. For an hour and half I worked with an hanger to get the car open. The night sky flashed with lightning and threatened rain. I was embarrassed and frustrated. I was so close so many times, but without success. Finally, as the parking lot was just about empty, I swallowed my pride and called a lock-smith. Once he arrived, he had the car open in less than thirty seconds!
As I paid the lock-smith, I said, "You did a great job, but did you know that you can't pick the lock on Heaven's door?" He looked at me rather strange as I continued, "Only Jesus carries the key to Heaven's door." I gave him a tract and asked him to read it and call me if he had any questions.
As I drove my exhausted pregnant wife home through the rain, I wondered what purpose God had by allowing us to lock our keys in the car? Perhaps it was a divine appointment scheduled by God just to give that lock-smith a gospel tract. Please pray that God's Word would not return void!
Hello Stephen and Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI must tell you our own locksmith story!
Several days ago, our car stopped dead in the left-turn lane at a red light. Paul was out of town, so I called some folks from church. Before they arrived, we had 2 policemen and 3 strangers stop to help us. One man was a mechanic, one was from the business at the corner, and one was...a locksmith. :)
The battery was so dead that jumping it did not help. It would not go into neutral so that it could be pushed out of the road. Ninety minutes and a new battery later, they got that car out of the middle of the road. I looked around for my 5 "good Samaritans" and they were gone! After all, they were 90 minutes late for wherever they were headed, and it was 95 degrees outside...but I had not been able to give them the tracts I had prepared or invite them to church!
Next day, bright and early, I was able to hand-deliver thank you cards, tracts, and invitations to church to 5 people (including a locksmith) under much less stressful conditions. :)
And, yes, I do believe that it was a Divine appointment. I'll pray for your locksmith if you'll pray for mine. :)
Good way to turn the situation into a witnessing opportunity! I locked my keys in my car earlier this week and we had several college guys trying to unlock it. Finally we gave up and I hitched a ride home to get my other set of keys. It is a most frustrating thing to have happen. :-)
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