Jesus in my rearview mirror
September 19, 2007
By Beth Bence Reinke
As I steered into a curve on the mountainous Pennsylvania Turnpike, I prayed for my friend, Carol. An ultrasound had revealed a large mass on Carol’s liver. Her grandfather had died of liver cancer.
Please let the mass be benign, Lord, I prayed silently.
Just then, the memory of an unusual 18-wheeler I had seen many years ago popped into my mind. The driver must have been a Christian, because the truck had twinkling lights on its front grate fashioned into the shape of Jesus’ cross. I had watched the truck in my rearview mirror, enjoying the beauty of the brightly lit cross in the dark of night.
Funny that I would remember that truck after all these years, I thought.
Only moments later, I glanced into the rearview mirror and saw a tractor-trailer bearing down on me. When it came into full view, I gasped. On its front grate was the shape of a cross, made of bright orange reflectors!
My eyes filled with tears. In the midst of my concern about Carol’s health, that truck delivered a unique message of peace and assurance. I flicked my gaze back and forth between the road ahead and the orange cross sparkling in the sunlight. Because of that cross, I knew in my heart that Carol would be OK.
And she was! She called later that day with good news. The CAT scan of her liver revealed a hemangioma, a benign mass of tangled blood vessels that would not even require surgery.
I told Carol about the cross on the truck.
“That gives me goose bumps!” she exclaimed.
We laughed together, sharing in the wonder of a God who speaks through everyday things like trucks, plastic orange reflectors, and rearview mirrors.
Beth Bence Reinke lives in Stewartstown, Pa.
“When you become a disciple of Jesus, you choose to learn the secrets of authentic living from the Master himself. Do you think for a moment the students of Rembrandt felt cheated or the football players under Vince Lombardi were ashamed of their coach or interns under De Bakey and Cooley could be persuaded to learn heart surgery from any other?”
“The Secret of Happiness,” Charles T. Crabtree
Today’s Pentecostal Evangel, September 16, 2007
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