“This used car is beginning to be a pain,” I thought to myself. First the battery had died in the first few months that I had it. Then a recall notice had arrived in the mail shortly afterwards. This meant driving it to a dealership 25 miles from my home and sitting for 2 hours while they replaced the faulty parts on it.

I had driven it in 2 weeks earlier only to hear that the right parts weren’t in stock and I would have to reschedule. Now here I was again pulling it in and looking to spend most of the morning sitting in a hard plastic chair. I dropped off the key and walked into the waiting room. Every chair was full and the all news channel was droning on loudly from the television on the wall. I smiled to myself and decided to try something a little different. Instead of parking my rump I walked down the road to grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant. Then I decided to walk a quarter of a mile in the other direction and buy a gift for each of my sons at a thrift store. I started off at a nice pace. It felt good walking in the sunshine. I knew, though, that I would have to cross a four lane road at the traffic light to reach the store and the drivers on it wouldn’t be on the lookout for a pedestrian.

I reached the traffic light and saw that I wasn’t alone. A black dog with a bright purple collar was standing next to me. He seemed eager to cross the road but also afraid to do so. “Wait!” I said firmly to him. He looked up at me with understanding brown eyes. Just then the light turned green. “Come on!” I said and the dog followed me as I ran across all four lanes of traffic. As we reached the grass on the other side he glanced at me once more before his nose caught a familiar scent in the air. He trotted off happily and somehow I could tell from his walk that he was headed home.

I could see clearly too that this was no random series of events. Buying this car, getting the recall, having to go back a second time, and the full waiting room had all put me in this spot, at this time, to help this dog get home safely again. I realized again that we are all connected in this universe, connected by events we can’t even imagine, connected by God’s Love in a billion different ways. All we need do is embrace it and add our love to it as well. May you always do so.---------