What Happened?

It must have been the late '80s because I was working for a company traveling from town to town selling industrial safety products to different types of businesses. Highway 80 is a quite road I was on between Waldron and Danville in western Arkansas. There wasn't much going on this late afternoon. Hardly any traffic competing for my space on the road. And hardly any thoughts competed for my brain's attention. I was zoned out headed home.

Then all of a sudden…out of nowhere…I thought my car was about to vibrate off the road. Could it be the Second Coming? Could it be an earthquake? Could it be a nuclear attack? No. It was an airplane.

Not far from where I was toodling along on Highway 80 is the Fort Smith airport which serves as the training facility for the Arkansas Air National Guard 188th Wing. I've read that in 1988 the 188th acquired the F-16. My guess is that a pilot was out with the new ride having a little fun. I might have done the same thing! He spots a lone vehicle on a secluded roadway, drops down to treetop height, and punches it right over my head.

My immediate thought was, "Oh no!" A second later, "What was that." Another second later I looked up in time to see the jet disappear. An hour later my heart rate returned to normal.

The only other experience I've had with something like that was several years ago on the weekend of the air show at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville. Deana, Riley, and I were about 15 miles away from the base, it was an cloudy day, and we were headed to get some lunch. Just toodling along with hardly any traffic around us.

Then the clouds opened up and a black disc swooped down, then right back up. For just a moment we saw what could only be explained as a flying saucer from outer space carrying aliens to attack us and carry us off into an alternate universe. That was the only plausible explanation.

The next day's newspaper carried a story about the new stealth bomber making an appearance at the air show. The pictures in the paper looked a lot like the spaceship we had seen the day before.

Oh.

Add to these two events the time the army helicopter landed in our backyard and you have the three times I've had weird things happen to me involving the United States military. Each time I asked myself, "What happened?"

Many more times in my life have I asked that question when something goes wrong or I'm hit by something unexpected. I just don't understand. Maybe you feel that way, too. A divorce. Losing a child. Getting fired. An expensive repair. Blown up friendships. Repossession. Foreclosure. The diagnosis.

"What happened?" Most often the answer is, "I don't know." But in every situation you can add to that, "But God does."

Have you come to the point where you can trust that if God knows that is good enough? You'd like to know but you don't have to know?

Here are a couple of verses from the Bible that help me when I'm wondering what happened.

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9).

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

The promise of these verses is that God acts in the lives of those who love him to help them when they aren't sure what happened.