God has been performing miracles in the lives of our family for
many years and we are always blessed by them.
God has been performing miracles in the lives of our family for many years and we are always blessed by them. But this one He did last week was perhaps the most amazing of all. There is a Scripture that says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.” I could really see this principle working itself out when a situation that could have been fatal to my husband “worked for good.”
We were driving home Tuesday when we noticed that a warning light came on our dashboard. It said “Service Car” and another light came on which said “Trac”. I asked my husband what that meant and he said, “I’m not sure, but I’m taking the car in to the mechanic tomorrow.” He did so and they told him the sensor was out on the right hand front wheel. He had them replace it to the tune of $800 and they said it would be ready on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning we went to breakfast with our son and his wife and daughter and ran several errands around town. We planned to go to Lake Camanche the next morning to check on our houseboat, which is in the dry-dock at North Shore having damage sustained during a storm last winter repaired. That night I began to have a severe back ache that kept getting worse and worse until I consented to use one of those pain patches they advertise on TV. I told my husband I didn’t think I’d better come with him to Camanche the next day because it would be about 330 miles round trip and I didn’t want to strain my back further. He agreed but said he wanted to go anyway.
He left about 8:30 the next morning and at 9am the head of the service department at the car dealer called and asked for my husband. I explained that he had gone to Lake Camanche and he asked me for his cell phone number. I gave it to him but he called back after about five minutes and said he couldn’t reach him. He asked me if I would keep trying to call him and give him his phone number at the dealership and his extension.
I asked if anything was wrong and he said “Well, we think he might have a loose lug nut, but it’s important that we get hold of him.” I agreed to keep calling and couldn’t reach him for about 20 minutes (he was going over Pacheco Pass) but finally contacted him. I gave him the number of the man at the service department.
He later said the man told him to drive pretty slowly to the next off-ramp (he was on I-5) and go to the closest service station and have them take off his right front wheel and see if his axle nut was loose! He did so, but it was about 15 miles and there was no place to turn around between there and Santa Nella. He found a service station but only one worker spoke a little English; the others not at all. He tried explaining what he wanted but finally called the service manager back and he explained to the man. He started taking off the wheel and when he got it off he began speaking Spanish very excitedly and then turned to my husband and said “No nut! No Nut! NO NUT!!” Whoever took his wheel off at the dealership forgot to put on the axle nut and during the next two and a half days, he had driven the car almost 70 miles with nothing holding the right front wheel on except the hand of the Lord.
Needless to say, he was shocked and asked the man if he had another one to put on. He hunted through his parts and called several other service stations but no one had one. (I guess people don’t need them often because they’re never supposed to be “off” the axle). Finally he said “Oh! I have a wrecked car out back (they owned a tow truck business) and maybe that will work.”
It happened to be the same make car as ours and he took the wheel off that one and put the axle nut on ours and it fit perfectly. When my husband got back to the Bay Area, the service manager ordered him another one but showed him that he had the original, which the person who took the wheel off forgot to put back on. Can you imagine driving over Pacheco Pass and up I-5 with your wheel held on by “nothing”? (Pardon me, Lord – You are the best wheel-holder-on-er ever). And, if I had gone with him, the man would not have been able to get hold of us and we doubt that wheel would have stayed on indefinitely on such a long trip. Praise the Lord for His miracles.
