After church yesterday, I was driving in the
right lane along Highway 40 to join my family at our favorite Mexican
restaurant. Ahead of me, a car pulled out, headed towards me in the left
lane. Headed towards me. On a divided highway. A one-way divided highway.
Thankfully, I was the only other car in sight. I started
honking, flashing my lights, and waving. He pulled up beside me and stopped, smiling. I yelled, with great urgency, “You’re going
the wrong way! This is a one-way highway!
Turn around!” The not-young man smiled
at me benignly and said “thank you.” I
was amazed. He showed no sign of alarm as he continued on his way in the wrong
direction. He finally pulled off right before a flock of cars in both lanes
crested the hill behind me.
When I told my youngest child this story, she reminded me of
a joke I’ve told before. An elderly man was driving along the freeway when his
wife calls him on his cell phone. “Honey, be really careful. The news is
reporting that someone is driving the wrong way on the highway that you’re on.” His reply: “I know, there are tons of ‘em
doing that!” Ba dum dum.
There are lots of lovely preacher points to make with this
story, and it will likely show up in a sermon one day. Today, however, I’m grateful that an older
man and a bunch of cars avoided a danger of which they were blissfully unaware.
