I was heading to church on Easter Sunday morning. It was a pretty typical car ride for a Sunday. I was praying that God would prevent me from screwing up His message that morning and that He would open the eyes to the hearts of the students I was speaking to. The passage for that morning was in Luke 24 and contains the story of the two disciples that were heading out of Jerusalem, post crucifixion and resurrection, and were making a bee line to a village called Emmaus.
As the disciples are traveling together they are discussing the events that unfolded and were sad that Jesus had been killed. Revealing a little bit of their heart in the process. Essentially, they did not believe that the resurrection would or had taken place. After speaking to them for awhile, Jesus reveals Himself to them. There’s this great little phrase in the text in verse 31 that says “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him,”
So as I am driving I’m praying to God. “Father, please open the eyes of some students this morning and help me keep my eyes open to You!” Maybe not those exact words but something really close. As I was praying, off to my left an axis deer leaps straight into the road in front of me. Mid prayer, without missing a beat my prayer switches to GOD #@!*. I’ll spare you the exact verbage but something like that if I remember correctly. I had to pray shortly after that for forgiveness…on Easter Sunday. Nice pastor move right?
I quickly slammed on my brakes but it was too late, I had already hit the deer. I won’t tell you what comes next because if you are an animal lover you’ll hate me but to everybody else, I’ll tell you the story later. Not sure if the deer made it but it would be an Easter miracle if it did. Steam immediately starting pouring out of my hood and my car sort of crawled along. On the bright side I was able to coast into the church parking lot where a few caring individuals directed me to a parking spot and some quick tips to make towing my car a little easier. Thanks Bob and Dave!
So I then get out of my car, resisting the temptation to lock my vehicle, and headed into the student building to finish prep for the morning. Moral to the story? Be careful what you pray for! “God, open the eyes of my heart” may lead to a full on collision with wild life!!! For the rest of the day I was thinking about how thankful I was that it wasn’t worse and how insignificant the things that we own are to human life and our loved ones. I considered the amount of trust I put into my daily routine and how I take things and people for granted on a regular basis. God opened the eyes of my heart. Not as I had expected but as was needed.
“And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.” Luke 24:31
mlsnellings 