I was away on the beautiful island of Jamaica, and we had the need to drive to the country from the town to take care of family matters.
There are certain unspoken rules of island driving. And if you are driving too slowly, just make sure you’re slow enough to ensure the driver behind you can go around. This is typically done in a safe manner, because the streets are narrow. While it’s an unspoken rule, the police don’t typically like it.
My sister in law and I were having a beautiful time of fellowship as we drove back. We were sharing with each other how God has become real to us and the lessons He’s teaching us. One of those major lessons has been learning to trust Him, along with learning to follow His lead.
As we continued driving, the driver ahead of us, who had been driving at a reasonable speed, considerably slowed, even though there was no one in front of him. As we were getting frustrated with his now slow movement, we checked the roads to go and make the overtake. The driver simply put out his hand indicating to us, ‘be still and hold your pace’. As soon as he did that, we looked up on the left and saw the police.
The driver had been able to see ahead. He saw the police. We had not. Unbeknownst to us, he had been not only protecting himself, but also us, and our family member in the car behind us. If we had attempted to move forward, so would the car behind us. And we have had to deal with the consequences.
Once again, we were both humbled at the real life experience that God was showing us. We had just been in conversation about the same thing, but in a moment, we had become frustrated because of the speed that we were moving.
Isn’t that human nature when God slows us down?
We get frustrated with our pace, and we attempt to speed things up – only to end up in a worse off situation than before, and potentially going the circuitous way. But thank God He slows us down with a simple hand gesture.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for divine protection, even through kind drivers along the way. Help us to see you and how you show up in our lives. Help us to learn these lessons.