Parking

John 10:19-30

Labor Day Weekend, the first weekend in September, temperatures well into the nineties, well over thirty degrees Celsius. It is my turn to take the snacks for the soccer team. It is a tournament. Teams are gathered from all over Houston, the fourth largest city in the USA and the rest of Texas too. Texan parents are enthusiastic supporters of sport and their children. For this event both are combined. The parking area, amply sufficient for every-week games and the occasional family which rented a pavilion for its BBQ and reunion was overflowing. Police were monitoring those who attempted to park on the roadside. The alternative, to park at the other soccer fields and ride the shuttle.
I was laden with an ice chest full of yes, ice. We needed plenty to keep the drinks cold for the end of the game and the ready sliced oranges fresh for half time. Home-made brownies were in my other hand, my chair and handbag over my shoulder. This was the plan. Ascending and descending from a bus were not written into the schedule.
I tried the parking lot. Full, as expected. One tour around the narrow lanes and then a wave, a wave from a leaving parent. Come here I am going you can have my space. What a thank you Jesus situation. I was and still am grateful even though the event was ten years ago.
During the match, to help to pass the time conversation drifted to parking, a hot topic in more ways than one given the normal raging heat which though we lived in daily was still a cause for conversation, a bit like the rain in Belgium. "Where did you park" I was asked, "Just over there" I smiled, maybe there was an element of gloat too.
"How did you manage that?"
"I prayed harder" was my flippant reply.
Th truth is that I believe that God was watching and saw my need of a parking space. He organized it for me.

Just like the people who walked and talked with Jesus and saw his actions we can interpret the events of our lives and can include him as the truth or not.