God's Love as Green Arrows

You see, I have been (and still am) a rather insecure driver, and I hate turning left. Some years ago, I sat at a red light and said, “God, please let the arrow turn green, so I don’t have to cross these lanes of traffic.”

I prayed fervently as the cars drove toward me on one side and past me on the other. I prayed as the pedestrians walked in front of me. I prayed until the light turned green. A green arrow.

I started praying regularly for green arrows. Under every red light, I sat with my blinker ticking in the corner of my dash, and I asked God for a gift. And he often gave it. And as I prayed, he gave the gift with increasing frequency. I prayed at every left turn, until at every left turn, the arrow turned green.

I’m not as insecure about left turns as I used to be, but whenever I drive under a green arrow, I feel God’s love for me. He cares for more than just the big and bad things. He cares for more than death in the family and body-numbing depression and demonic nightmares. He also cares about owl calendars and free ice cream and heart shaped stones. And green arrows.

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On my way to work, I drive up the four-lane highway and stop at a left turn. The stoplight is notorious. You can drive through north and south, often without stopping, but if you turn left, you’ll sit through at least three light cycles. The cars drive north and south. The cars drive east and west. The cars turn left from the east and left from the west. And then finally, after sitting almost endlessly, the arrow turns green just long enough to let two cars turn left from the south. I often watch cars continue turning as the arrow turns yellow and then red, riding on each other’s bumpers so they won’t have to wait through another set of light cycles.

Every day, I stop at that light. Sometimes, I see the green arrow up there in front of me, and I think, “Maybe today, more than two cars will make it.”

Every day, they don’t.

But this week was especially hard, and as I drove to work one day, I saw the green arrow ahead of me. It stayed green. Two cars went through. It stayed green. Two more cars went through. It stayed green.

I drove under that miraculous green arrow, and I felt God saying, “I looove yoooooooouuuuuuuuuu!”