Ok, brace yourself for another exciting tale of yesteryear..!!
When we lived in our previous house, around 1990 though not sure of the exact date, it was a bank holiday Monday evening, and John and I were watching a James Bond film on TV. Suddenly, we heard a loud bang! I looked at John, he looked at me and Josh, our Rottweiler/GSD cross rescue dog looked at both of us! As one man, we all rushed to the front door to find a large Ford Granada car on our small front lawn, embedded into the wall of the house! There was steam coming out from beneath the buckled bonnet! (That’s the hood in the US!) The shocked woman in the driver’s seat was a neighbour from three doors along our row of houses!
It turned out that the car was an automatic and, as she was parking on the road facing our house, she got her flip-flop caught between the pedals. (Never drive in flip-flops!!) Since she had not yet put the car in “park”, she ended up mounting the kerb and driving at speed straight into the front of our house as she tried to dislodge her footwear! She had already taken her seat belt off and actually cracked the windscreen with her head as she came to a sudden halt!! It was a bit of a disaster all round. I’m glad to report that she was not badly injured, though very shocked, as were we!
Fortunately, our wheelie bins were in front of the house and one of them was in the direct line of fire and acted as a crumple zone, or I think the damage could have been a lot worse! (Sadly, the bin did not survive…!)
Several people helped to get the car off our short front garden and back onto the road, which was just as well as we had a fractured gas pipe, which had to be fixed under spotlights at close to midnight, so we had a big hole under our window with an orange barrier round it too!
Next day, the insurance assessor came and said we needed acrow props as he wasn’t sure if the wall was structurally stable as the outer skin of bricks was so damaged. It took several weeks for everything to be arranged and fixed. We had to have a new front door fitted, because although it wasn’t involved in the crash, the impact to the adjoining wall had caused the frame to be out of alignment, so it was very hard to open and close. The builder who came to do the brickwork was called Bob, which caused some hilarity! (Bob the Builder – look it up if you haven’t heard of him!)
One lunchtime at work, I just had a really strong urge to come home, though it would be a rush as it was a 20+ minute drive each way and I only had an hour. When I got home, Bob was busy working and Josh was tied to the banister on a long rope and lying on the grass watching him.
I said, “Oh, what’s he doing out here?” Bob said, “I’m saying nothing!” and grimaced…
When I went into the house, Josh followed me, with his tail between his legs… The living room floor was covered in chunks of pink foam and scatter cushions! In his stressed state, he’d chewed out the underside of every seat cushion on our quite new leather suite!! He literally looked so forlorn and apologetic that it was hard to be mad with him, but I realised why Bob had taken him outside! Looking back, though I wasn’t a Christian then, that “go home” feeling was very like when the Holy Spirit speaks to you!
Anyway, regarding this incident, John managed to make light of it all as we stood in the garden surveying the damage, the oil and tyre marks on the grass, the hole in the ground… He looked at the mangled bin and said in a pretend sad voice, “I had one of those, but the wheel fell off..” which really made us laugh! 😂 You can look the phrase up for the meaning if you haven’t heard it before!
Now let’s fast forward to the recent present and I’ll tell you why all this came to mind after so many years!
About two weeks ago, I was driving my 19 year old car to collect my friend and take her shopping, as usual, but I could hear a knocking noise coming from the front of the car and feel it through the steering wheel. I drove about a mile, stopped, rang my son who was at home, and he said come back, I’ll have a quick look. So I carefully drove home. He looked underneath, couldn’t see anything hanging off, came with me for a slow drive up and down our road, and decided it wasn’t anything serious. “You’ll be fine Mum!” Yeah, that really filled me with confidence!!
So, I set off again, literally got about 100 yards to the end of the road, and the feeling of the Holy Spirit yelling “Stop!!!!!” was so strong that I pulled over, rang to say I was coming back, and then carefully reversed up the road and back onto the drive! I had to cancel the shopping trip at no notice, which made me feel bad. Then I felt helpless as I was now car-less till I could get it looked at. It’s virtually impossible to get to anywhere useful from my house by public transport! Thankfully, a kind friend ferried me to and from church for music practice and Sunday services, and I just didn’t go anywhere else!
The car was already booked in for its annual service and MOT this Monday, and I’d notified the garage about the noise, which we agreed could be something expensive, though hopefully not terminal!
Gary came and collected it and carefully drove to the garage. I rang to make sure he had got back in one piece and he said there was definitely a knocking, and that he could feel it in the steering wheel too! He said the mechanic would do the MOT inspection and he’d let me know…
Well, shockingly, it transpired that my front, offside wheel was really loose and actually had a nut missing! It must have been working loose for a while as there was uneven wear on the front tyres! Goodness knows how it came about, I mean the roads are pretty rough and full of potholes round here, but could they have caused this..?!
So, praise the Lord!!!! If I’d ignored it and kept driving, who knows what could have happened! I usually go a couple of junctions on the motorway each week. I could have had a nasty accident, been injured or worse, caused an accident affecting other people. At the very least I could have written off a car that was easily repairable! And, if you read my post on how I got this car, you’ll know that Daddy God provided it for me after I lost the previous one! Read it here…
https://the-finished-work.com/2021/09/10/let-go-and-let-god-part-2/
Anyway, my old car and I have now been happily reunited, I’m mobile again which gives me joy and freedom, and all praise to Father God for protecting me!
So, I’m delighted to tell you that I had one of those, but the wheel DID NOT fall off..!!
Thank you, thank you Lord! ❤️
The Finished Work 