Things Are Not Always As They Appear

Have you ever found yourself looking at a situation only to learn that your interpretation of the event was not accurate? I am amazed by how many times that has happened in my life.  

Last Saturday evening I was studying in my favorite chair when suddenly I heard squealing tires and a loud crash. This is a sound I’ve heard several times in life but never while sitting inside my home. We live in a quiet neighborhood where there is not a lot of traffic, so it totally caught me by surprise. My first thought, because our house is located at a T intersection, was that somebody was driving too fast and slid right through the stop sign and plowed into my car, which was parked on the street. Tami and I rushed outside to the scene and quickly jumped to our conclusions of what had just happened.  

There were skid marks at the front of our house that showed a vehicle turning and missing my car and our mailbox by less than 10 feet. The vehicle was going so fast it couldn’t stay on the road, and it hit the curb in front of our neighbors’ house so hard that it broke the concrete. It went up into their yard and you could see the tire tracks that showed where the vehicle swerved back onto the road. At the speed the vehicle was traveling it could not stay on the road, and skid marks showed how it swerved to the right and, losing control, crashed into a mailbox. An SUV was sitting there smashed and a mess.  

By the time Tami and I got outside, all of our neighbors were also walking out of their homes trying to figure out what happened. As we looked around and saw the things I just described, we all figured that whoever was driving the vehicle was still inside of it. At that moment a police vehicle pulled up to the intersection and everyone started pointing to the smashed-up SUV a few houses down. The police officer turned the corner and drove to the SUV but didn’t stop. He kept driving, and we were all confused. We watched him drive to the end of the street and turn right where all the neighbors down there were pointing down the street. I told Tami that the driver must be on foot and running to get away. We could hear the siren down the road behind our house now, and a few seconds later we saw the police vehicle turn onto a main road and disappear. We were all trying to put the pieces together. What really happened was that the vehicle that had crashed into the mailbox had been hit by the out-of-control driver who just kept driving, trying to get away. It showed us how off we can be when looking at an event without seeing it actually happening.

In life, there are times when I analyze what is happening around me and think that I have it all figured out, only to discover that I am so off with my assumptions. We all have those moments when we are going through a situation and trying to analyze why it’s happening. Or maybe we are facing a difficult time in life and we attempt to figure out the reasons behind it. What I learned Saturday is that things are not always as they appear. Sometimes things are their toughest right before the breakthrough comes. The events I’m experiencing are not necessarily God trying to get me back on track, but may instead be events that need to happen so that God’s plan can unfold. Don’t over-analyze, but instead stay in prayer and seek God’s will for your life.