A sweet reminder of His love

I meant to write this post a few weeks ago, but I was too busy fearing for my life because of my medication.

I had a neat experience I wanted to share.

When I made my unplanned move from Cedar, I hadn't been able to fit everything in my car on the way back, so I had to make a trip down there to pick everything up (and of course visit as many people as possible in 3 days time).  As I drove away from the house I was supposed to be living in this semester, I was crying AGAIN.  I thought about how wonderful the weekend was, and how perfect my life was supposed to be that semester, and everything I was missing out on.  I was ready for several hours on the freeway spent wallowing over the dream of a life I was once again driving away from.

On my way out of town, I completely forgot to get gas before getting on the freeway, so I ended up having to pull off at the next exit to grab some.  

As I was filling up my tank watching the price climb higher and higher, I was thinking about an episode of What Would You Do?, an ethics and values candid camera show I used to watch.  In the episode I was thinking of, they had actors carrying a gas can around to various people, begging for gas.  If I'm remembering correctly, they also tried the experiment out with different genders and races to see if the strangers' reactions would differ.  I stood there filling up my tank and pondering what I would do if someone approached me asking for gas.  I'm a college student, so I'm pretty poor, I definitely don't have extra money to spare... but it only took a second for me to decide that I would definitely give them some gas if that situation came up.   I immediately thought "I hope I get the chance to help someone like that someday soon."

and right after I had that thought, the craziest thing happened.

I finished filling up my tank and turned around, and there was a man holding a gas can walking straight towards me with his family following behind. 

I probably freaked the family out, because as soon as I turned and saw them walking towards me I broke out into a HUGE grin. 

Just as I suspected, the man came up to me and explained in broken English that they were on their way to Colorado from California but didn't have the money to pay for gas to make the trip.  He asked if I would be willing to give them a bit of gas to help fill up part of their tank. 

Still wearing my giant smile, I enthusiastically told him that I would love to.  I filled up their gas can, accepted their thanks, and drove away with some very happy tears in my eyes. 

I'm sure they thought that they were the ones being served, but that opportunity to give something to a stranger was exactly what I needed.  It helped me shift my focus from how hard my life felt at the time, to how I could help others.  On the other end of the spectrum, I was also reminded that Heavenly Father remembered and loved me.  Even though I felt like he had asked me to give up everything, He was telling me that not everything I wanted was going to be shot down, even when life is hard there is joy to be found.  As simple as that opportunity was, it was a reminder of my Heavenly Father's love for me, His control over this world and everything in it, and His ability to answer my unspoken prayers.