It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in people. —Psalm 118:8 (NLT)

Every New Year’s Day, my ten siblings and I, along with our many children and grandchildren, get together for a time of family bonding. We usually meet in our home village, travelling from different parts of the country and sometimes abroad. This year, as I always do before a long trip, I took my car to a mechanic for servicing. “All good,” he said. I told him about a slight knocking I had been hearing but unsure where it was coming from. Philip (my car) is in fairly good shape, but he turned sixteen this year, and my neighborhood streets are unpaved, so there is always a knocking or rattling somewhere. The mechanic, after driving with me for a half mile on paved and unpaved roads, pronounced a mild diagnosis. “Nothing to worry about right now,” he reassured me. “You can go on your trip. We’ll take care of it after you return.” 

However, by the end of the two-hour drive and a couple of short errands in the village, the slight knocking had escalated to a loud clanking. Very slowly and noisily, I drove the car to a cousin who is a mechanic. In less than two minutes, he straightened up from the front wheel he had bent over to inspect. He shook his head. “Who is your mechanic?” he asked. I told him. Then he showed me where, on the left front wheel, one of the two nuts had fallen off the caliper bolt—a crucial part of the brake system. Apparently, the mechanic had failed to tighten the nut properly when he had done some work on the suspension system a month earlier. The nut had been slowly “walking” off the bolt as I drove around Belmopan, then on the Hummingbird and Southern highways, and into the village where the extremely rough, pothole-riddled road shook it completely loose. All the while, I had no idea what great danger my life and my daughter’s life were in. 

Truly, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in people (Psalm 118:8, NLT). I never drive on the highway without praying for protection. If we’re already heading out of town and suddenly remember we hadn’t prayed, I pull over and pray for us in our car and everyone else on the road. 

I still always get my car checked before a road trip. But regardless who the mechanic is, I know that ultimately, God is my true refuge. “A very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).  

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