Fernando

When I started college my parents made a deal with me - if I received scholarships they would buy me a new car. I don't know why they felt like they owed me a new car for my hard work and I was perfectly happy with my Dad's hand-me-down 1999 Toyota Camry, but after two years of college and zero out-of-pocket dollars from my parents, we were off to the car lot.

I knew I wanted an SUV because I love big cars. Little known fact, my dream car would be a Hummer. Also, at that point I knew I was moving to Texas to finish college so a smaller SUV was out of the question because it couldn't haul all of my stuff back and forth. After test driving a few different models, I decided on the Hyundai Santa Fe. My one big request - I wanted a blue one. Unfortunately the only blue one at the dealership was a 4-wheel drive, which let's be serious, there is no need for a 4-wheel drive SUV in Florida or Texas. My Dad, the master negotiator, told the salesman he would buy the blue one straight off the lot, but he wasn't going to pay an extra thousand dollars or so for an extra feature we didn't want or need. The car salesman agreed, sold us the car for the price of the same model without 4-wheel drive, and a few days later I drove my brand new car right off the lot. Once we were home I named him Fernando because everyone knows that SUV's are boys and being a Santa Fe, he is clearly Hispanic. 

Fast forward 5 1/2 years to yesterday morning when I woke up to over a foot of snow in my driveway and a very icy commute to work. In fact, there is a pretty big hill in the middle of my drive and the only vehicles that were able to successfully make it up the hill were SUV's and trucks. Cars were stuck every few feet with nothing to do but sit there and wait for a truck to pull them out. Even worse is that thanks to a pretty big median, once you realize you can't make it up the hill it's already too late. There is no way to turn around and go back down. Me and Fernando, we were champs and although we were a little late, we made it to work safe and sound without too many problems.

Plus when I pulled into the parking lot a co-worker said she was behind me for most of the drive but didn't realize it was me. She said she saw my Texas Tech sticker and was impressed that someone who clearly wasn't from Colorado was driving so well in all the snow. What a great compliment - do I dare start to refer to myself as a local?

Anyway, in the middle of all of the snow and ice and my daily commute at 30mph dodging cars stuck in snow drifts, I had a sweet moment with the Lord. There I was driving Fernando just in awe of the Lord's provision and love for me. There was one blue Santa Fe left on that car lot 5 1/2 years ago and that one SUV had 4-wheel drive which we didn't even want but the Lord knew I would need. What a special time for me to realize this in the midst of complete chaos. It's hard to be angry about a snowy commute when you are reminded the whole time of how much the Lord cares about every little detail of my life.