My SUV thinks its God!  

After years of driving outdated vehicles, I finally got myself one from this century –  a 2024 Honda CR-V.   It was a Godsend!

As I age my driving skills could possibly be diminishing.  At least that’s what my wife says. But my CR-V is keenly aware of my questionable road skills and often compensates for me. 

If a driver makes himself at home in my blind spot.  A little light in my rearview mirror alerts me.   When I forget to dim my lights for an oncoming car, my SUV does not.

My wife tells me that I tend to swerve to the left when I look to the right.  Not anymore.  Lane assist confines me to my lane.  

When I am oblivious to the speed postings, I can find the current limit displayed on my dashboard.   This SUV is making my wife’s back seat driving commentary obsolete.

When I pull up to a light, the vehicle automatically lowers the volume of the radio so the guy in the car next to me can’t hear me listening to “Baby Shark.”  The cruise control even senses when I am getting too close to the vehicle in front of me and it slows me down.  

My SUV is amazing.  It has everything but a cassette player.  

And it reminds me, a lot, of God (the vehicle not the cassette player). 

As I have journeyed my way along, I have assumed that I have controlled the vehicle I called my life.  But actually, God has been with me all along, watching the road ahead and compensating for me.

David conveyed this idea in Psalm 139. 

He wrote, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord” (1-4).  

Our all-knowing God is very aware of what, when and how we do it – even before we do it. 

He continued, “You hem me in behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (5-6) Because God is omnipresent, He surrounds and protects us with His incomprehensible divine force field.

“Where can I go from your Spirit?” wrote David.  “Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (8-10)

No matter where we go, or how fast we travel to get there, He sticks with us. He guides us, keeps us in our lane, and even prevents us from back-ending the person ahead of us.    

“If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you (11-12). He is more efficient in handling the darkness I face than my automated high beams. 

My SUV also does makes me aware of any internal mechanical concerns.  The Lord, however, does that and more.  David wrote, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting (23-24).

Psalm 139 tells us that God assists us when we are weak, alerts us to dangers and concerns and keeps us centered in the narrow way. He is at work for us and in us whether we are aware of it or not.

And He comes with an extended eternal warranty.

A PRAYER: Lord, where would we be without You? 

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Scripture passages are from the NIV.