PEOPLE who come up to my garden wonder why I keep an old tire on which I’ve made a seat. Ah well, there’s a tale everywhere isn’t there? It happened some years ago, and I must say that watching your car going up in flames isn’t a pretty sight, and as my wife and I watched her car on fire that day, we felt a deep sense of sorrow. It had been a short circuit, and the flames we had battled had gone sky high.
The mechanic who came next day to look at the remains of the car had a smile on his face as he met me, “What’s there to smile?” I asked angrily. “The car is a write off,” he said. “So why the smile?” I asked again, even more annoyed. “You’re alive sir!” he said. “Weren’t you driving?” “No,” I said, “My wife was, I came later!”
“Then madam is a very lucky woman!” he said, “because I noticed they couldn’t open the bonnet! Sir, when the bonnet is stuck, normally the flames cannot be contained and the flames spread like wildfire underneath your dashboard to the seats and then explode when the flames reach the petrol tank, it’s boom!”
“It’s what?” I asked. “Boom!” he said, “Like an explosion! I cannot understand how the car did not explode!” “The rains came,” I said simply. “The rains?” “Yes,” I said, “When I arrived, I saw the car was next to another near the gate, and I got into it, to steer it downhill away from the other car!”
“You got into a burning car?” asked the mechanic and I nodded sheepishly and continued, “Suddenly I saw flames inside at my feet. And then came the unexpected heavy downpour!” “It came in torrents!” whispered the mechanic, “at a time no rains ever come!” “And that’s how the flames couldn’t spread!” I said. “That’s how both our lives were saved!”
“Your wife and you are very lucky,” whispered the mechanic as he smiled again. “Sir, before they tow away whatever is left of the car, why don’t you unscrew a taillight, or keep something that isn’t burnt?” “Why?” I asked.
“So, you can always remember how you both were saved and most importantly what a loving God you have! He got your wife out of the car in time and He sent his own heavenly fire brigade with thousands of tons of rainwater, to save you sitting inside!”
The burnt tire in my garden smiles back at me as I look up and whisper, “what a loving God you are! I have no idea why you guard, protect and care for us despite us not deserving it..!”
