Last night I put “home” into my car’s GPS, and for reasons unknown to me, the route home was one that it never suggests.

My initial response was to override the recommendation and choose the route I usually take, but then I thought to my Self that it may have suggested the alternate route for a reason–after all, I believe less and less in coincidence and “chance.”

I was curious to see if I could tell why my car wanted me to take a different route, so I checked to see if there was anything traffic-related. There wasn’t (but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the reason). I checked to see if the new route was faster, and it was the same distance and expected time as my usual route. To the best of my knowledge, there wasn’t an obvious reason to take a different route home.

So I followed my GPS’s guidance.

After we made it home, I wondered if the change in route home prevented Roman and me from being somewhere we were supposed to be.

Had we taken the normal route home, could we have been in an accident?

Or could we have hit a big pothole because we couldn’t avoid it due to the traffic around us?

Was the GPS influenced by a Divine force that was protecting us?

Obviously, I’ll never know. I can’t go back in time and take the normal route home to see–nor would I want to, since we made it home safely.

Reflecting on these questions made me wonder how many times we are guided by invisible hands that protect us without us ever knowing?

The unexpected phone call that delays leaving the house by a few minutes.

The distracted driver at the red light who keeps us idle for a few seconds longer.

The delayed plane that causes us to miss our connecting flight.

In the moment, what seems to be an inconvenience might have actually been an orchestrated event to protect us from a greater inconvenience or worse.

I find it comforting to believe that a Divine force is pulling some strings every so often to protect and/or guide me. Experiences like last night make me want to question less why things like a random GPS route happen and trust that it's for a reason–a reason I may never know.

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See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC