Lingerie And Long-bed Trucks

Lingerie and Long-Bed Trucks

Plans go wrong for lack of advice.

Proverbs 15:22

My husband’s brother, Loren, was a missionary in Thailand for about thirty years. Loren and his wife, Penny, along with their four children, were happy there and did wonderful work for the Lord. Once in a while they got to come to the States on furlough.

One summer they were going to San Francisco before heading home to Kansas. To help them save the airfare from California to Kansas—a lot of money for six people—I agreed to drive our big fifteen-passenger van from Louisiana to California, pick them up, and take them to Kansas to my in-laws’ farm. When they arrived in San Francisco, we loaded the van to the gills, finally tying bigger pieces of luggage to the rack on top. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies!

Somewhere in Colorado we stopped for the night. The next morning Loren loaded the luggage, and we were on our way again. We were clipping down the side of a mountain when Loren and Penny’s daughter Kim yelled, “Hey, there goes our luggage!”

I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see two big pieces of luggage bounce onto the road, burst open, and send clothes flying everywhere. I stopped as quickly as possible and then carefully backed up to where the luggage lay in ruins.

“How did the luggage come loose, anyway?” I asked.

Loren, a little red faced, admitted, “I thought the big pieces were heavy enough that they wouldn’t need to be tied down, so I didn’t secure them.”

We told the kids to stay in the van while the adults got out and gathered up my pajamas and other unmentionables and stuffed them back into the suitcases, all the while keeping an eye out for some long-bed truck barreling down the hill. The scene looked like an I Love Lucy episode! Fortunately, we survived the mishap with laughter and were left with a great memory.

Dear Father, thank you for protecting us when our lack of planning causes difficulties and even sometimes puts us in harm’s way. Keep us safe in your care, and help us to take the time to plan wisely. Amen.