Good Samaritans

     Coming home from an extended trip, we found our car at the airport parking garage with a flat tire and a dead battery. After being in an airplane for over 21 hours and our body’s internal clock out of sync with the new time zone, my family and I were worn out and ready to go home. This was a bummer. Somehow, I remained calm and kept reminding myself that everything happens for a reason, and I trusted that God allowed this to happen to protect us or teach us something. I made a few phone calls to see who might be available to help me, but unfortunately, no one could at the time. There must be someone at the airport who could help, I reckoned. This was a small airport and I know the guy who owns the airport transportation service company. He had given my family rides to and from the airport many times the past 20 years. When I asked him if he could help jumpstart our car and inflate the flat tire, he said he could not, but he knew people at the airport who could. This very kind gentleman left his work area and walked around the airport with me looking for the airport shuttle driver that he knows. Luckily, we found her, and she was very kind and was more than happy to assist me. I told her our car was parked on the 3rd floor of the parking garage, and she said she would meet me up there with the equipment she needed. She would have to drop off the shuttle bus that she was assigned to drive at the time and get on a different vehicle to drive up to where I was. In the meantime, I walked back to our car and waited patiently for my help to come. In less than 10 minutes, a white van drove by with a lady driver who looked just like the one I had spoken to. I thought, “Well, what a miracle?” With all that she told me she had to do prior to driving up there, I was surprised at how fast she made it. I waved at the driver of this van as she passed by, and she abruptly stopped. I then realized that she was not the one I was expecting. This lady was very nice, nonetheless, and asked me if I needed help. I told her my story and she said that since she was already there, she could at least help me jumpstart the car and I would have to wait for the other lady to help me with the flat tire. Eventually, the other lady came and helped me inflate the tire and we were good to go. I told her she was God-sent, and we all thanked her profusely. 

     When we finally got home, we found out that our air conditioning system, Wi-Fi, garage door, sprinkler system, and refrigerator were not working. They were likely damaged by the storm that hit our area two days before. The house was very warm, and I had to get emergency help. I called several heating and air company in town but none of them could help us that night. One of them put us on the waiting list for emergency technician support and told us it would likely be in two days. We were tired from our trip, but we could not rest in this heat. The following day, I got a call from someone at the heating and air company who said that one of their clients cancelled their appointment and they have a technician who could come to our house immediately, if we were available. We were, and a guy came and helped us get the air conditioning system in some parts of the house working; he needed to order parts to get the others fixed. The technician was extremely nice, thorough, and helpful. He gave his best effort in figuring out what was wrong and fixed what he could and was genuine in his desire to help us. A little later, I found a computer technician who could help check out and fix our Wi-Fi. In this day and age, Wi-Fi is a necessity for basic living, and I needed it badly to catch up with work. This technician gave up his family time on a Friday night to come help us. He promised his son to paint his room that night, but instead, he was at our home for four hours trying to get us taken care of. A colleague of mine also later found out we needed help, and he swung by our house to check out our sprinkler system, garage door, and refrigerator, and helped me get started in getting them fixed. Through all these, my wife did not feel well, and we were very thankful that a doctor friend of mine took my call very early in the morning and helped her feel better.   

     As I was going through these unexpected nightmares one after the other, there seemed to be no end in sight. It felt like everything was conspiring to take me down. Even though the emergencies were taken care of, we still have a long way to go in achieving normalcy. I am thankful I was able to keep my faith in believing that God intended all these for our good, and He has plans greater than what I can foresee. But until a friend of mine texted me to encourage me, I was focused on all the unpleasant things that happened and thought about them as if God was the one inflicting the pain on me. As if God was saying, “I love you, son, you need to be tortured for your own good, so here it is.” My friend reminded me that it is the devil who inflicts pain on us and causes our misery. It is the devil who destroys things and relationships and tries to draw us away from God by leaving us discouraged and despondent. Although God may have allowed suffering in our lives to transform us, sanctify us, or teach us, He is not the one who causes the chaos or destroys the beauty of His own creations. What God does is He sends us the Good Samaritans we meet along the way to help us through our trials and tribulations. He also provides us a way out of our dire circumstances and protects us against the evil forces that seek to destroy us. In these stories I shared, God actively helped our family as many times as we encountered problems. He was constantly with us through all these, keeping us calm and feeling secure. It was Him who caused us to encounter the owner of the airport transportation service company, the airport shuttle driver, the unknown female driver who happened to drive by our car, the heating and air technician, the computer engineer who fixed our Wi-Fi, my colleague who came by our house to help, my doctor friend who helped take care of my wife, and my friend who texted me to encourage me and remind me of all this. Not only did these people help us, but they were also extremely nice and caring, and made sacrifices for us; they reminded us of God’s nature and character. What happened to our family recently was inconvenient, but they are certainly not life threatening and probably nothing compared to what many of you are going through right now. Nevertheless, they were bad enough because they happened in a cluster, and they could have easily caused us to question our faith and doubt the goodness of God. These little things can cause serious damage to our faith if we consider them mere nuisance and do not put up enough defenses. Through all this, I found comfort in consciously seeking to recognize the Good Samaritans that God sent my way in the midst of life’s trials and difficulties and thanking God for them. I was also able to rest assured in the reminder that although God allowed suffering in my life for His higher purpose, He did not inflict them on me or caused them to happen.

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