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The Miracle of Everyday Life

Well, today was an interesting day!  I’ve got the standard ‘teacher-in-new-job’ cold and am feeling rather ropey to say the least!  But today has been one of those days to be truly thankful, for the most unexpected of reasons!  Always the best kind 🙂

So I was lucky enough to only have 3 lessons today, all at the start of the day.  Thankfully, I asked if I could leave school after teaching my lessons to have time to rest and recover from this cold.  So I happily left and walked to my car, which I saw had a flat tyre.  Not something I’ve had to deal with yet in my 8 years of driving and owning cars.  So I made it to a petrol station nearby to put air in the tyre with the hope that I’d be able to make it to a proper garage and buy a replacement tyre.  The plan was simple but effective!

Except that there was a slight hiccough – the tyre was so flat that it wouldn’t accept any air from the pump.  No problem, I think – I’ll call the breakdown people as I’ve never changed a tyre before.  Another teensy problem – I’ve forgotten to renew my breakdown cover!  Oh dear!  Things looking less good by the minute.  I spoke to a couple of breakdown people and  found it that my mistake was going to cost me over £100.  Less good had turned decidedly to ‘bad’!

So the next step was to phone the lovely Nick who’d let me leave school early and who is an all-round helpful dude!  He was due to teach a lesson so couldn’t help me, but he suggested that I ask around the garage to see if anyone could help me change the tyre.  “You do have a spare?”  he asked.  I was quiet.  “I have no idea!” I responded.  Now feeling totally idiotic for being so neglectful of my car maintenance duties!!

So I went into the petrol station and asked if anyone could help me.  To my absolute delight, the manager said yes!  So he came out to the car and discovered that I didn’t have a spare tyre!  Argh!  Just as the panic was setting in and I was beginning to berate myself for being useless, when he told me that my car came with a puncture repair kit.  Well!  Forget your bike-puncture-putting-in-water nonsense!  This stuff was AMAZING and even I can do what it needs to fix a tyre now I’ve seen it done!  Hurrah!

So, having bought the manager of the petrol station a nice bottle of wine in thanks, I started on my way to the garage to find a new tyre.  With many a prayer that I’d make it there in one piece, I drove the 15 minutes and arrived at a tyre place, only to be ushered immediately into the bay for tyre replacement.  In less than 10 minutes I had a new tyre and was safely on my way home, thanking God for the grace I had been shown today!  This had been a long series of misfortunes, many of which hadn’t been helped by my own silliness!  And yet I felt like I was looked after at every turn!

There’s a saying that keeps coming back to me by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: ‘the worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful, and has nobody to thank.’  I don’t want to judge people for believing or not believing in God – as far as I’m concerned their path is their own to follow and isn’t mine to judge.  But I was so grateful to see the hand of God in today, keeping me safe and shining through the hearts of those who helped me.  And grateful that I had God to thank!

Time to share the chorus of one of the songs I’ve written with you:

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