Praise the Lord!  We just returned home from a scary experience. 

We went out today on a family trip.  We had cabin fever.  The Hendersonville, North Carolina area was hit by a terrible ice storm and snow, and  we couldn’t go anywhere for several days.   Today is Saturday and the roads are clear and it is Daddy’s day off so we went for a drive.  We loaded the family into the van and drove around Henderson County and Transylvania County.

The ice covered frozen mountains were beautiful.  The clouds were low and seemed to touch the mountain tops.  It was very quiet and peaceful as I looked at it from the vallies inbetween the mountains.  Though I am sure many families on those mountains are hurting without power, and unable to come up or down some of the steep icy roads and driveways. 

Several thousand families in Henderson County are without power right now.  We saw several trucks from electric companies on the roads, and near Laurel Park, NC we saw electric company trucks blocking highway 64 to fix major problems at the intersection.    We were praying as we traveled along, for the Lord’s help in restoring the power to these families and hard hit areas.

We were very thankful that the storm did not cause us any major problems at our home.   We are on a well and septic, and have an electric heat pump furnace, and I was concerned what we would do, if we lost power.   We made provisions in case the power went out, such as filling up the bath tub with spare water to flush toilets, and filling several pitchers with drinking water, getting flash lights and candles ready and so on.  Thankfully we only had a few minor power flickers and it did not go out.   But as I made the provisions, my mind was thinking about the verses Jesus spoke of where there were 10 virgins waiting for his return and five were ready and five were not ready.  I asked the Lord to help me and my family be like the five who were ready for his return.

As we headed North on highway 280, North of Brevard, we hit a pot hole.  A few minutes later we heard a sound like driving on rough pavement.  Then suddenly, the van began to pull to one dirrection and made a lot of noise.    It had shredded our left rear tire on our van going full speed.  We got stopped, but it was next to a guard rail with no where to get off the highway.  My husband had to change the tire in the road.  Nearly 200 vehicles passed us going full speed, almost half were in our lane. They would come over a hill and make a slight curve at the bottom and we were right there.  They barely moved over before nearly hitting my husband and our vehical full of family. 

I went out side to stand between my husband and oncoming traffic, but he made me go back inside to be safe.  I cried.  The only thing I could do was call on the name of the Lord.  I yeilded to my husband, and to the Lord.  I asked God to move the vehicals over, to put his angles and a hedge of protection around him.  I asked Him to take this opportunity to show my children His mighty protection. 

It seemed like it took forever.  At first, fear gripped my heart, then I said “no” to fear and I will put my trust in the Lord.   As the wind from the semi’s blew around me and vibrated my van, I just said “Lord help me, I don’t want to be afraid.  I trust you. I love you” 

As I prayed I was reminded of the verse “it is not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord.”  I began to sing this verse over and over.  Soon, I noticed my children and their determined faith in the Lord to protect their Daddy and get us home.  They expected God to be a shield.  My oldest son prayed and knew the Lord would keep us safe.

God kept us safe.  My husband got the tire changed.  We returned home.  We are safe.  Praise the Lord!

Be Blessed!