Angel in a red pickup truck

 I was on my way to work this morning and just as I turned onto a road that I take to work, a red pickup pulled out. I admit I am an impatient driver and was irritated as he slugged along at 20 mph in a 35 mph zone. Fortunately I didn't follow him very long as he went left where I went right at the next crossroad.

  About 15 minutes later as I topped a small hill and hit a flat area, I saw movement to my right and automatically slowed. A deer was running from the direction of the road and had obviously crossed just before I came up the hill. As I braked I glanced around to make sure it didn't have any friends straggling along behind, and saw no other dear. Muttering a "Thank God" that I hadn't hit the deer, I went on my way. But as I drove, I was thinking.

  Narrowly missing that deer might not be a big deal to most people, but it was to me. If you know me very well, then you know that I never hit a deer in my life until I had my previous car that I got rid of in February. I hit a grand total of 4 deer with that car. Three were in the space of about 8 months, and the last two were in the space of 2 weeks. It has made me very cautious and jumpy as I drive to work in the dark or almost daylight. Every morning before I leave the house, I pray for God's protection and help for the day and pray that I don't hit any deer....honestly I do. I may be the only person who prays that, but that is how paranoid and fearful I have become of hitting a deer.

I only had my current vehicle a couple of weeks and had 2 close calls with a deer, so I put those things on my bumper that are supposed to scare the deer away. As I drove this morning, I wondered... was it the contraptions on the front of my car that caused me to avoid hitting that deer? Was it my prayer? Was it being held up for a few seconds behind a slow moving pick up that delayed me just enough for me to miss the deer? What if the truck was put there by God? What if..... what if it was angel driving that pickup to slow me down long enough to miss hitting a deer.

  Seem far-fetched? Possibly. God has a lot more important things to do than to help me avoid hitting my fifth deer, or does He?

  I seriously doubt God would send an angel to drive a pickup slow just so I'd miss a deer, but He could orchestrate that vehicle pulling out just then and going 15 miles below the speed limit, knowing if I hit another deer that I'd be devastated and be more of a basket case while driving to work.

  Too many of us tend to think our problems and situations are too small and insignificant for God to notice or intervene in, yet if He sees the sparrow fall and cares about the lilies of the field, how much more does He care about every detail of our lives? Even helping someone avoid hitting a deer with a car.

  I don't know how much God will reveal to us when we get to Heaven, and we probably won't even care at that point. It is possible He will pull back a curtain and we will see all of the times He caused Heavenly hindrances in our lives to protect us. The time our car wouldn't start, protecting us from a bad car accident that would have taken lives. The time we got held up in the check-out line that prevented us from being mugged and robbed. The job we didn't get that would have led us far from Him. The relationship that didn't work out because God knew he or she wasn't the right one. Only God knows what He has kept us from using delays and what looks like non answers to prayers we have prayed. If we could see our lives from Heaven's point of view, we might be thankful for delays and not always having our prayers answered the way we want.

  Maybe it was the deer horns as they are called that prevented me from hitting the deer this morning. Maybe it was the pickup delaying me a few seconds....and maybe it was all God. I don't think it will hurt just giving Him the credit and being thankful to Him, and not a couple pieces of plastic on my bumper.