Flashdrives and God's Sovereignty

When Matt and Julie spent the weekend here in mid-January, we did not have this much snow. However, this photo, taken Sunday afternoon, February 21, shows some of the snowbank created by our record snows this winter. I thought about a modern rendering of the famous painting "American Gothic," and got the idea that the Garrett County winter of 2010 version, might make a cute blog photo. We talked about taking the picture on Saturday when we returned from the Winterfest in Oakland, but the sun was down too low. Sunday morning we leave here early for the 40-minute drive we have to church; thus the photo op didn't happen until shortly before Matt and Julie pulled out and headed home. That's when God's sovereignty and flash drives met.

Julie got home after their January weekend and couldn't find her flash drive. Had she left it here? forgotten it at Brenda's Pizzeria? left it in our Jeep? The information on the drive included a list of wedding guests and their addresses, graduate research papers, and photos. Then there's the entire issue of identity theft. Needless to say, Dave and I looked under beds, around couches, near the keyboard and in the Jeep. Julie called the restaurant and I asked our pastor's wife if anyone had discovered a flash drive at church or in the Sunday School room. The drive was nowhere to be found, so Julie and Matt began to recreate their guest list. And we all prayed for the lost to be found.

But time passed and snow fell. Dave and I returned from Florida on February 13, and happily, one neighbor had plowed our long, steep driveway while another neighbor had shoveled a narrow path into the backdoor.We nestled in and watched it snow more virtually every day. Dave's daily routine involved about two hours of shoveling and Pat used the scoop on his tractor to lift the snow onto banks that grew to almost ten feet in height. Yet, for some reason, when Julie and Matt came back February 19, we thought the flash drive might show up. At least Matt and Julie tried to get back here. When they were only about a mile away, Dave went to retrieve them and get their car parked back down our mountain.

In Luke 12, Jesus asks, “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." Wow! We see a modern example of the God who counts the hairs on our head. He had been watching out for that flash drive. At photo time, as Matt walked across the driveway, now amazingly down to the wet, black gravel, he saw Julie's flash drive lying there on the ground. Not scooped up by the tractor or shoveled into woods, but there in plain sight. As Matt and Dave assessed the drive, they agreed that a few days of drying out and all the information should be available. Doubt God's sovereign on the smallest details of our lives? Not me.