My alarm rang me awake at 4:45 in the morning.
Had there been a snooze, I would have slapped it, but this was 1970, and my clock was a wind-up Big Ben with no snooze button. So I turned the alarm off and urged my thirteen-year-old body out of my warm bed and into my clothes.
Waiting for me seven blocks away near Winston-Salem’s Baptist Hospital were fifty editions of the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper. I was a paperboy, and my job was to deliver those papers to the front stoops and porches of the houses on my route. So I dressed and padded my way quietly down through the house to the garage. Gathering up my trusty ten-speed, I eased the garage door open … and stopped in wonder. The world was white with snow.
This was a first. I had never delivered papers in the snow before, but I rolled my bike out and lowered the garage door. Snow fell hard, but only an inch or so had accumulated. I had no trouble traversing the seven blocks to my papers. By the time I had them rolled and in my shoulder bag, another couple of inches had fallen.
An hour later, I was in trouble. Slogging through ever-deepening snow, I was soaked. My canvas sneakers were wet and my toboggan cap sodden. I had opened my coat to cover the papers, and now I felt ice-coated and was shivering uncontrollably.
Suddenly, headlights flashed over me, and a car horn sounded. I turned and saw the most welcome sight in the world: our car with Dad at the wheel. Observing the weather when he arose, he had wrestled the snow chains onto the car and come to my rescue. Together, we finished the paper route. With the heat on high and my bicycle in the trunk, I was sound asleep by the time we got home.
My Father in heaven lovingly watches over me, just as my earthly dad did. When the going gets beyond my ability to handle, He has proven over and over He will be there. He holds me in His hand, and I have rested there in peaceful gratitude more than once.
If you are slogging on a hopelessly torturous path with no end in sight, give it to God. Rest in Him. His love will never let you down.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Kevin Spencer is a freelance writer and professional editor and is privileged to be a staff writer for Christian Devotions. He lives in Middle Tennessee with his beautiful wife Charlotte and his 14-year-old wonderful grandson Caleb. A former prodigal son, Kevin has been blessed beyond measure and lives a life far, far better than he deserves.