"Come on, God! Please help me find my other shoe! I'm gonna be late!", she said with the least bit of respect that she could muster in such a desperate situation. Sonya was getting ready to leave for her flight, and she was going to be late. Desparately, she searched for her shoe under the bed, in the clothes hamper; darn dog must've gotten it again. We'll just see who has to stay outside next time it rains, she thought. "God, please! I can't be late this time! I'm going to miss my flight! If you could just help me this one time to find that other shoe...Well, I did spend 30 min. in John last night; doesn't that count for something?"
Finally, through some divine revelation,of course, she thought to look in the bottom of the closet once more. And lo! There was her other shoe, plain as day. "Whew! Thanks, God. You're so cool!" She ran out the door, grabbing her purse and suitcase and set out for the airport.
Fourty-five minutes later, she sat, exasperated, by the side of the road waiting for the patrol cars. Someone had run a red light and hit her car. No one was hurt, but of course she would probably miss her flight. "God!" She said aloud. "What did I do to deserve this? I'm only two blocks away from the airport! I know that everything happens for a reason, but come on? What possible good could come out of this?" Frustrated and tired, she kicked the curb that she was seated on and scuffed her new white shoe.
When the police finally arived, she explained the whole story, and went to the glove box for her insurance. Realizing that she had left all of her papers in the house when she had cleaned out the car, she became irate. With a dented fender, a scuffed shoe, and a ticket, she plopped back into the car and said a few choice words.
No sooner did she get back on the road when she felt guilty for the words she had uttered. "God, I'm sorry! But darnit!!! How can you expect me not to swear and to be in a good mood when you let stuff like this happen?" After a moment of silence, and no divine revelation this time, she turned into the parking lot of the airport.
As she rushed to the desk, she fumbled for the tickets in her purse. And then it hit her. She had left her tickets in her OTHER purse. She approached the desk, explaned her situation, and asked if maybe they could look her name up in the computer. "I'm on flight 190 seat--"
"I'm sorry ma'm," the lady behind the desk tapped her fingers on the computer screen. "The computers have been out for about an hour. We had a complete system crash. It delayed the flights for a little while, but your flight is about to take off, and I'm afraid the only way you could possibly catch
the flight is if you had your tickets in hand and were ready to go."
Without a word, Sonya turned and walked away. The drive home was silent. Not a single word was spoken. Not to herself, and certainly not to God. No, she was beyond upset. This had to be one of the worst days that she could remember. Nothing went the way it was supposed to from the start. Not that any of it was the fault of her poor organization skills. No, God should certainly have intervened if he cared for her at all. Just this once, he should have helped her out. But no. He had left her to fend for herself. After all, it wasn't HER fault that she was unorganized. That just wasn't one of her gifts. It was the way God made her. All His fault again. It all came back to him. There was no excuse for this. What was the reason for all this. There obviously was none. She didn't have any divine appointment. No miraculous opportunity to witness to anyone. And she was out some money and a perfectly good pair of shoes.
"No excuse for this," she muttered under her breath as she went to unlock the door. But wait! Something was wrong. The door was unlocked allready! And on top of that, it was slightly ajar. Surely someone hadn't broken into her house! Considering the fact that maybe Atheism really isn't all that dumb, she flung the door open. Maybe not the brightest thing to do, but she thought that maybe getting shot wasn't such a poor option at the moment.
There, in the living room, sat her family on the couch. They looked upset--like someone had died or something. Great. Just what she needed to slow her heart rate down. The news that they would be attending a funeral in a few days. Instead of staying on the couch as she expected they should in such a situation, they all ran toward her, tearfully embracing her and asking if she was all right.
"Why wouldn't I be all right? What's going on??"
Her sister grabbed her by the hand. "We just got the news that something went wrong with the take-off of flight 190. It crashed into one of the towers and everyone on the flight was killed. Wasn't that your flight?"
"Yeah," she said hanging her head. She knew what was next. "I missed the take-off"
"Good thing," her mother said wiping the tears off of her face. "God was really taking care of you!"
_________________________
-Michelle
The best laid plans are in my other pants. -- Newsboys
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