God's Perfect Timing

By: Jim Fishel

Have you ever said to yourself, “Now why did that happen? What am I supposed to learn from this? Is this just a random event that has no lesson to learn or benefit to me or others, or is God about to show me something special?”

Earlier this month Sharon and I and our friend Elaine Sharer were on our way home from Alberta, Canada when I asked myself all those questions. We were towing a small 4’x 8’ box trailer with perhaps 200 lbs in it. The route I had chosen was to go through Yakima, then Hwy 12 to I-5 and home. We were on a long uphill run on I-90 when my chauffer said “Jim wake up, we’ve got smoke coming out the back end.” Less than a half mile ahead was a rest stop so we kept going and came to a stop in the truck parking area. Oil was pouring out of the transmission.

Disaster always seems to draw a crowd, and just as I verified that the oil was from the transmission the man already parked next to us came over and said “tranny’s hot, happens a lot on that long grade”. I’m not always sure what to say when someone states the obvious so I just nodded, but he continued, “Do you have any ‘tranny fluid?” I didn’t and he said, “I have a couple of quarts you can have, and a funnel to put it in with.” I thanked him and tried to pay him but he wouldn’t take any money. This modern day ‘Good Samaritan’ said, “Just pass it on, there aren’t enough people who care nowadays to help.” Then he gave me a 3rd quart of fluid and left.

We had to wait for the transmission to cool down before we could continue and as we waited a young family in a pickup pulling a big travel trailer rolled in next to us. Oil was pouring out of the transmission and I walked up and said, “tranny’s hot, happens a lot on that long grade. Do you have any transmission fluid?”

In retrospect it seems obvious to me that the reason my transmission over heated was so I could be in the right place and at the right time to help the young family. We drove away from that rest stop rejoicing and praising God for His goodness to us and His perfect timing. Now if I could just see what I’m suppose to learn from the turn signals not working.