Synchronicity…Coincidence…Does God Use Google?
On a recent Saturday, I took my granddaughter back home to her mom. We had a busy week doing Cousins Summer Camp 2022. And I can say after a week of chasing those 3 Grands around, I know that raising kids is for the younger folks. Providing food and entertainment while making lasting memories was an exhausting blessing. A blessing that I was soon to learn should not be taken for granted.
At some point on the drive back, I checked my gas gauge. I had enough in the tank to go 169 miles and I had 163 miles to go. I was driving through some very rural parts of eastern North Carolina. I did what any modern grandmother would do; I asked Google to find a gas station along the programmed route. I asked for a specific brand where I was pretty sure I had some loyalty points for cents off the gallon. Google made its recommendation and I rolled on down the road.
I drive through a little town, and I see the gas station, but wait, that isn’t the one I have programmed in my navigation. No problem, I still have over 100 miles in the tank.
I come to the next town. I see the gas station. Google Girl is quiet. No that isn’t the one. I need to go a little further. Then I see another. Not that one either.
After passing 3 other gas stations, I finally arrive at Google’s recommendation. I pull up to the first pump, but it is only diesel. The place is packed. I see the truck in front of me has a driver in the driver seat. I figure he will move soon. So I wait.
As I wait, I observe 2 young boys, black hair, brown skin. They appear to be Southeast Asian descent. Brothers. They are nervously pacing around the gas pump on the other side. A man comes out of the store and motions for the boys the pump the gas. The older brother tries and shakes his head and his father’s shoulders fall. He goes back in the store. The boys return to their pacing.
Finally, the man in the pickup truck gets out and walks around to the pump. He leans over the bed of the truck and adjusts his load before he finally climbs back in the cab and pulls out. Okay that was weird. Why did he sit there that long and block the pump?
At last, I roll up to the pump. Scan my card and start pumping the gas. I hear a voice and I turn to see the older brother pleading with me. His English was not bad, but I was having trouble hearing and understanding him with all the noise under the canopy’s echo of the highway noise. I apologized and asked him to tell me again. He asked, in broken English, if I could help them buy some gas. Their father has lost his wallet and they wanted to go home. I looked at the older brother and then to the younger one. The younger smiled at me and dropped his chin shyly to his chest. He had an ear ring that caught my eye. A small cross dangled from his ear.
I turned back to the older brother. I asked if his father was in the store. He nodded yes. I told him that I would speak to his father after I finished filling my tank. He motioned to his dad.
His father smiling with his hands in prayer asked if I could please help them get home. He was having some bad luck. His English was not much better. I looked at the California plates on his car. I said “I can’t buy you enough gas to get to California.” He said they have a home a few miles from the store and they were new in the North Carolina.
I was uneasy. My stranger danger anxiety was feeling strong. I looked at the boys and I looked back at the father. All my thoughts we not the best thoughts at that moment. A woman traveling alone can’t be too careful these days. I assumed that I was getting swindled. But those thoughts were scattered as a light warmed in my heart. “But by the grace of God go I” “Do this to the least of these and you have done it for me” I walked around to his pump and pumped in 5 gals. I looked at the father and said, “It is only 5 gallons of gas. I hope this will get you closer to home and a little peace.” I returned the nozzle and quietly walked away. I could hear them thanking me. I couldn’t look back. I just said to the father as I walked past him, “I wish you a safe journey.”
His van followed me for a little while down the road. We eventually turned onto different roads. My brain was trying to process what just happened in that place. Why had I been navigated there when so many other options had been available sooner?
Is the Google algorithm somehow linked to people in distress?
Or did someone’s guardian angel reach down and program my navigation?
Or did some Divine spirit, put these people in my path to let me demonstrate a measure of kindness? Did I do enough? Should I have done more?
Was this Synchronicity? Coincidence?
Every morning, after my meditation, I pray that God will bless me with the light of love that I can be a light for someone who needs it. I guess on this particular Saturday, someone needed 5 gals of gas and I needed a lesson in trust.
The Divine message that I received: Let your light shine in kindness. Remove quick judgment from your heart. Keep love forward in your decision making. It is too easy in these dark days to shy away from trust and kindness. It is also easy to turn on the light of kindness and push back the darkness.
Whatever distrust and judgment crossed my mind in that moment was a darkness that was extinguished by a small light of kindness. I don’t know how many more people they had asked to help them. I don’t know the reasons that they were refused help. I only know that I asked Google for a gas station on a rural route and was blessed with the opportunity of kindness.
Published in loving memory of my mother who would have celebrated her 83rd birthday today.
