The Locksmith

My phone rang; it was my son calling. “Mom, can you come get me? I’ve locked myself out of my car. I’m at Atwoods.” Atwoods was a store near my house, but I was in town. I called my husband, David, and asked him to go and help Benton.

He left right away. David drove Benton to his home, where he got a key he thought was the spare key. Unfortunately, they discovered it was the wrong key.

Apparently, Benton did not have a second key for his car. We wanted Benton to have access to his car, and we prayed that God would somehow help us to open his car, even though we could not figure out how to make that happen.

While David was trying to open the car, a family drove up in a Hummer. A lady smiled and asked, “Are you having trouble with your car?” David explained what had happened. The gentleman said, “I think I can help you. We have a towing service, and we help people get into their cars all the time. My place is just around the corner. I’ll go and get my tools.” “How much do you charge?” my husband asked. “Well, I generally charge sixty dollars, but since we are so close, I will just charge forty dollars.” “That sounds great!” David responded.

Soon, the family was back. They walked over to Benton’s car, opened up a package, took out their tools, and within four minutes, Benton’s car was open.

When the gentleman saw Benton’s Navy uniform on the hanger in his car, he asked, “Is your son in the service? Are you a veteran?” he asked, looking at my husband. “Yes, to both questions,” David answered, smiling. “Well, I thank you for your service. And I thank you for your son’s service. I won’t charge you anything because I’m grateful to you both.” With that, my husband said thank you and goodbye to someone sent by God to help us.

Once we were both home and he had told me the story, I said, “Remember, we prayed, and God answered our prayer.” With that, we said another prayer of thanks. God is so good; He certainly loves His children and helps them when we do not expect it.

Charlotte A. Robinson