A few days ago I was on Facebook and it popped up some history for me.  This was an event I had totally forgotten about, but decided I want to save it here, because it was so meaningful to me at the time, and I don't want to forget it again.

The winter of 2014 was one of high snowfall here in Calgary.  Since we normally don't receive large amounts of snow, the City doesn't do much actual snow removal, mostly they just salt it and push it around.  Because of deep snow on the residential streets, getting around in a car became quite a challenge for many people.  The following is what I posted about one of my experiences with the snow.

Let me tell you about my morning.

Day before yesterday, the city crews came by and “ploughed” our street, which means that they just took the snow from the middle of the street and made it into a big pile beside our parked cars (they did this at 11 pm btw, so yes, our cars were parked on the street, go figure). Yesterday morning I managed to get out, but this morning, due to the thaw yesterday and the softening of the snow pile, I got stuck. Really, really stuck. Well, what to do? The very first thing I did was offer a little prayer. “Heavenly Father, please help me get my car unstuck so I can go to work”. Then I tried rocking the car back and forth. I tried putting salt down around my tires. I shovelled, put mats under my tires, shovelled some more, put down gravel. Nothing helped.

Let me interject here that in the past few weeks I have helped to push out four cars. I am 53 years old, morbidly obese and have a bad back. But when I see someone struggling I just can’t bear to abandon them without at least trying to help. You’d think that would build me up some good karma, but the few people to see me struggling during this time looked the other way. I thought about my little prayer, and how it seemed like it was going unanswered. I felt like crying, but knew that wasn’t going to help matters so I gulped back my tears, and decided to take another look to see if there was anything else to be done.

Looking under the car showed me I was probably high centered. I went to the shed and got a long-handled metal shovel and started shovelling out the ice chunks from under the car. I worked on it for over an hour.
Just as I had got to the point where I thought I had removed enough snow to try again, a young man in an SUV pulled up alongside, rolled down his window and asked me if I needed help. He pulled out a tow rope, attached it to my car and had me on my way in less than five minutes. I thanked him profusely, gave him a big hug, and proceeded to drive to work. Now the tears really did flow. I was SO grateful for his help.

I pondered this experience a lot on my drive in. Why had the Lord answered my prayer in this way? Certainly He could have sent someone along much quicker, and had me out sooner. But He waited until I had done ALL I could. The result was that when help came, I was a hundred times more grateful than if it had come immediately. I thought about my life and the times I have suffered and struggled and it seems like there no answers. I thought of those who suffer trials that seem unfair. Good people to whom bad things happen. I’ve always felt that those trials strengthen us and build our character, but today’s lesson really hit home about how much more grateful we are when we receive relief from something that is really hard.
So now I’m stiff and sore, my shoulders ache, my back hurts. But I am glad, and so grateful. Grateful for a stranger who stopped and was my knight in shining armour. And grateful for a loving Father who allows me to suffer a little, so I can learn life’s lessons.