Today was a rainy day with some patchy fog. I had to make several trips to various places, including picking my oldest up from dress rehearsal tonight.
I left the house at 8:30 p.m. because I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get to the school by 9:00 p.m. when rehearsal was supposed to be over.
As I started driving I realized that there was almost zero visibility. The fog was so thick it seemed like there must have been cotton balls glued to my truck windows.
When I made it to the highway from our country road I turned down the radio and rolled down both front windows so I could make sure there were no cars coming towards me.
As I turned onto the highway I could only see about 10 feet in front of me. I was so thankful for the little reflectors in the middle of the road and the fact that I have driven that road hundreds of times. I kept checking for houses and other landmarks to help me stay focused.
The entire way I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles were white. At one point I asked Janna to tell me a story because it was too quiet in the truck with just the two of us. She said some sweet words very softly (It sounded like a story, but I couldn’t tell what she was saying.) then stopped after about a minute. I told her thank you and asked her to tell me another one, but she said, “No, I don’t have any more stories.” (Ah, 3 1/2 year olds!)
When we finally pulled into the school I texted my dad and husband. I asked for prayers that we, and all of the other students and parents, would get safely home. While we were waiting Janna said, “I’m so scared.”
Quite frankly, I was scared, too. I hadn’t said much on the drive but Janna must have sensed the fear I felt. Even so, I reassured her that we would be fine and that we would be home soon.
Before we could go home we had to drop off another student at a nearby town that wasn’t on our way home. Normally, it would have taken about 5 minutes to take her home, but tonight it took much longer.
Once we were finally on our way home I asked Julia to keep me distracted. She was so sweet to talk to me and to text her grandpa and daddy to keep them updated. At one point she did her job too well and I couldn’t find a landmark to help me know where we were. I started to get claustrophobic because it felt like the fog was swallowing us up.
Julia reassured me that I was doing fine and together we watched for the next house so we could know how far we were from home.
As you have probably figured out, we did make it home. I only drove about 30 mph for a good portion of our trip home and just focused on keeping my vehicle between the lines, but we did make it home.
Driving through fog, especially fog as thick as I drove through tonight, is scary. It takes a lot of trust to be able to drive when you can’t see but a few feet in front of you, even if you have driven that way many times before.
Sometimes in our lives we go through foggy days when we don’t know what’s going to happen. We get scared of what lies ahead. The unknown and what if’s can almost overwhelm us.
Even when we know God is in control and that we should not be afraid, it can be hard to not be at least a little scared when we are faced with a difficult situation.
There have been times when I have wondered why we have to endure the hard days, the foggy days, the days when we feel afraid and don’t know what lies ahead.
While I may never know the answer I do know something that we can all do during those times.
Trust.
By trusting God as our guide we can make it through anything.
So, when the fog rolls into your life and you don’t know what’s ahead, put your trust in the One who can lead you safely home.
P.S. The picture above was taken last fall on a country road just a couple of miles from our house. It was a foggy day, though not nearly as bad as tonight.
