Memorial Box Monday- The Gas Station

So this is a story from a long time ago, like still in college-old. Like oh my goodness- 8 years! haha where does the time go?

It is a story that I haven't told many people, because it is pretty personal to me, but there is no time like the present, right? So here it goes...

This was at the time I was still going to school down in the Ozarks. At that time, Jeremiah and I were dating and I wasn't yet a Christian, which is a pretty important part of the story.

Since I lived about 4 hours away at the time, I would drive home most weekends to see my family, but mostly to see Jeremiah. Yes, I knew I loved him and we had only been dating for about 3-4 months, so I really really missed him.

One Friday in September, I was driving along my usual route, and I was at a stretch of road that was really in the middle of nowhere, as I remember it. It was mostly a farming community, but there was a little tiny gas station that I would pass with these huge carved statues of animals- bears and something else, I can't remember.

So this day, I was driving and listening to the radio and all of a sudden I felt the Lord say

"Pull in here."

I believe that God still speaks to us. Maybe not audibly, but I have felt Him speak to my heart so powerfully that I cannot ignore it.

But back then, I didn't quite know what it was. So I kept driving.

When I was just about to reach the entrance to that little gas station, and I was thinking about how funny those animal statues were, I felt it again. And I tell you what, it rocked my insides.

"Pull in here now!"

And I couldn't ignore it. I felt like I had absolutely no choice but to pull into the gas station. It felt like I just could not possibly keep going straight. I had to turn in. So I did.

I went in and I felt really silly because I had no idea what I was doing there. I walked around, hoping that the girl behind the counter didn't think I was casing the place. Finally I bought a drink and a candy bar or something.
The girl at the counter was beautiful. I remember that even now. She had really dark, long hair.
As I was walking back through the door, she said,

"Be careful out there."

Who says that at a gas station?

So I just got back in the car and pulled out of the parking lot, still kind of weirding out over the whole thing. And then I drove out on to the road and immediately after you get on the road at that spot there is a little hill that dips down into a sort of valley I guess you could call it, and then the road goes up again.

And it was as I came over that little hill that I realized what had just happened to me. If I had kept on going, I would have been hit by a truck that had come across both lanes and plowed into a fence on the shoulder of my lane. It was a very serious wreck for the truck. The police weren't there yet, but someone had stopped and was calling 911.

I knew at that second that if I had not pulled over I probably would have been killed. I started to just shake and I couldn't even help it.

For a long time before that happened, I had been testing the waters of Jesus, really just trying to figure out what He was all about, what the Bible said and meant, and I know my friends at school had been praying for my salvation. But after that event, I really understood that if I had died then, I would have been helpless to enter into Heaven. And it all came together that I needed Jesus more than anything in the whole world, because I was a sinner. Everything I did was not enough to make me a Good Person. Every "good" thing I did didn't count in the end, unless I allowed Jesus to transform me into a living sacrifice for Him, and cover me with His righteousness, which was His blood which He gave up in my place, for my sins.

I think that is why God spoke to me that day so powerfully that I can still hear His voice today, shouting to me, saving me from that wreck, and working in a mighty way to save me from an eternity apart from Him.

So, I still don't have a memorial box yet, but when I get one, I will put in a piece of a toy fence to remind me of God's timing and to listen when He speaks.