Thank you Jesus for your love and protection. Amen!
After work today, I took a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few items as well as to get the cheaper gas from Murphy USA. I swiped my credit card, pushed the yellow button marked 87, and began to fill up my gas tank like I had done so many times before. I turned towards my car to take a seat while I waited for the numbers to get higher and higher. As soon as I looked at my door I knew I had done it. I gave the door a yank – nothing. I walked around the car glancing again over at the numbers on the gas pump. I shook my head and smiled in disbelief. I had locked my keys in my car. I can only think of one other time that this has happened to me in my driving history. Once I gave the fourth and final door a tug I knew that I had to think quickly – on to plan B.
A lady was driving up or attempting to position her car so that she could get in line after me. I really felt bad at this point because the station was extremely packed. I walked over to the lady to inform her of the situation. I then asked her if she would allow me to use her phone since all of my belongings for the exception of my credit card were locked in my car. She smiled and handed me her phone without hesitation. I stared down at the phone for about thirty seconds until I realized I didn’t know any numbers by heart. The only number that I could recall was my parent’s home phone number and since they live in Louisiana that really wasn’t going to do me any good. I smiled and thanked the kind lady – on to plan C.
Once my tank was full I replaced my gas cap and walked over to the cashier’s window. I asked the two nice ladies inside the booth if they had a phone book or if they had a number for a pop-a-lock service. They immediately answered no to the phone book question (technology is really crippling us) and no to the locksmith - on to plan D.
I decided I’d walk back up to Wal-Mart and ask the security guard if he had a slim jim (didn’t know what this was until today) or if he had the number for a pop-a-lock. He didn’t have a slim jim, but he pulled out his phone, located a locksmith, gave them a description of my car as well as the exact address to the Wal mart (which I would not have been able to do). I thanked the kind man and walked back out to my locked car.
By now a line had formed behind my car. Again, I shook my head and laughed. I had the cashier place a orange cone behind my car to eliminate the amount of disappointed people. I had at least fifteen minutes to waste until the service guys would show up, so I decided to clean my very dirty car windows. I could not believe this was happening to me. The good news was that I wasn’t scheduled to be anywhere and I hadn’t bought groceries at Wal-Mart that would have surely spoiled in the hot car. Usually when things like this happen to me I look up and ask God, “Okay, so what’s my lesson?” Because I am a believer in the fact that everything happens for a reason. Nothing is by mistake. All I could think of was some person from my past would show up and rescue me from my distress or some other random event would occur; you know something worth blogging about. J
At that very moment, I heard someone say, “Now what did you do?” I looked up smiling to see a gentleman staring back at me. I explained my situation still laughing as if everything was just dandy. He pulled his car in front of mine, turned off the ignition and began to retrace my steps around the car. He checked every door while I laughed in the shade and at one point I think said, “let me just stand back to see if you do anything that I haven’t already done.” We both laughed again. He then offered up several suggestions for me to prevent this from happening again in the future. He asked several questions and offered up a great deal of unwanted information, but I just laughed and enjoyed the company. His last suggestion was to purchase a slim jim from Wal-Mart so that he could show me how to use it this time as well as any time in the near future. I laughed (okay I flirted a little) and said, “Oh, I’ll go back to Wal-Mart if you drive me back up there.” When I heard myself say those words I knew something was definitely different about this situation. I hardly ever talk to strangers or should I say strange men, but it was something about this guy that made me feel safe. As a matter of fact from the very first words that he spoke to me it seemed as if I already knew him. So, on to Wal-Mart we went – also known as plan E.
He searched the store for the device that he recommended unfortunately Wal-Mart didn’t carry the product. We walked back outside the store and at this point I’m thinking that his kindness was over. Surely he had better things to do then to wait around in the parking lot – the hot parking with me. We stood next to his car trying to decide what to do next. He pulled out his phone and called up a few of his friends that owned car repair shops as well as suggested trying Auto Zone or something like that for the Slim Jim. He kept saying over and over again how the locksmith was going to charge me a lot of money. At this point, I didn’t care about the fee, I just wanted to get in my car and go home. Again, all of his options came up short. We both just laughed as if to say, “Oh well”. Then he reached out his hand and said, “Hello, my name is…” for the life of me I cannot remember his name. We had been talking for nearly thirty minutes and didn’t even know each other’s names (smh). Smiling he drove me back to my car and then I just had to ask “Is there somewhere you need to be?” He answered me saying “Nope. Just stopped here to get some gas and then go home.”
The gentlemen waited with me until the locksmith showed up. He had coached me saying, “Before he does anything ask him how much he is going to charge you.” (Again, he reminded me of someone I use to know or some distant relative – I don’t know.) I followed his direction as he watched me from the sideline. The locksmith – Lawrence was his name (crazy that I could remember his name after only being around him for a few seconds, but could not remember the kind guy that had been helping me for the last hour) – told me that he was in downtown Dallas when I called. None of his other co-workers wanted to drive out that far and to top it off he was already off the clock. Lawrence had a very pleasant attitude. He only charged thirty dollars and retrieved my keys in under a minute. I shook his hand and thanked him before he pulled away. My gentlemen friend asked, “Did you tell him thank you?” Clearly he thought that he was my daddy or my brother or something like that.
I then shook his hand and thanked him for staying with me and helping me out. He turned to walk away and I was a little sad. So, I said, “Did you write down my number when I gave it to Lawrence?” He smilled, but I could tell that he had no clue what I had just said. I was too shy to repeat myself, but surely he would ask me for my number. I mean I wanted to be able to perhaps get him a thank card or a gift certificate. He opened my car door and when I was safely inside with the key in the ignition he smiled, closed the door and walked away. I sat there for a second before glancing in the rear view mirror to see if he had changed his mind about that number. To my surprise, he was nowhere in sight. That is when I realized he was my Guardian Angel. God had sent him to me and I was extremely thankful. I couldn’t stop smiling… My God is so awesome and always so very good to me!
The somewhat ironic part of this story was that one of the items that I had just purchased in Wal-Mart was a movie entitled, “a good man is hard to find.” I couldn’t do anything, but laugh out loud and say, “Thanks for lesson Lord. I hear ya!”
Be blessed,
Christy
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