A beautiful day, Father, thank You for Your blessings – inspirational worship, an afternoon spent with my love, beautiful scenery in our travels, scrumptious food. All praise to You!
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
One thing every school bus driver learns to do is a turnaround. Quite often we have to pick up kids down a road where there is either no outlet or maybe it is just too time-consuming to take the road to its next intersection.
It takes a bit of practice but you get the hang of it pretty quickly. In my training, I practiced right-hand turnarounds but on my daily routes, I have only left-hand turnarounds – three to be exact. Basically, in this scenario, I put my left turn signal on and pull into the left lane of the road parallel with the road I am on but perpendicular to the road I will be backing onto. I watch, with my side mirrors to see that my left-hand back tire goes just past where I want to turn into. I then turn my hazard lights on, put my bus in reverse (which activates my back up warning beeper) and then honk my horn before backing up, all the while looking in all of my mirrors to assure that no one is behind me – both on the road on which I am turning from and the road (or driveway) on which I am turning onto. All in all, it is a pretty precise maneuver.
I give you this information because last Thursday afternoon as I was executing this maneuver and saw that there were a few vehicles that were safely stopped behind me. They were far enough back that I had no fear of hitting any of them. As I sat in the drive in which I had backed into, the first vehicle, an SUV, drove past me…and low and behold, it was an Ohio State Patrol unit with an officer behind the wheel! I had absolutely no idea! Here the whole time, I was under the watchful eye of someone who would have had authority over me. If I hadn’t done what I was supposed to do, I could have found myself in trouble!
There are two things I would like to share. First, many times we have no idea who is watching us. That day it was an Ohio State Patrol Officer. Other days I have seen the owners of the driveway in their yard or on their porch. I’m sure the family members of the kids I drop off right before there have watched me turn around there numerous times. It is hard to hide your actions in a three-ton behemoth of a yellow bus! I represent my school district and how I do my job reflects on them, whether I like it or not.
I am sure there are many times where there has not been a living soul watching me do that turnaround…but wait a minute…there is always Someone watching me. And He doesn’t just see my actions. He also knows my thoughts and intentions, too.
King David declares in the first few verses of Psalm 139,
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
I cannot hide from You, Lord Jesus. Through the entirety of my life, I am under the watchful eye of Your authority. How I live my life reflects on You. May I be diligent in living out my life as You would see fit. May people see You in me that they may be drawn to You. Amen.
Oct 27th, 2019, Sun, 6:58 pm
