My husband and I love to take road trips. We head down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a three and a half hour road trip, to hang out with our daughter and her family. We love to take our little one eyed chihuahua with us on our trips to the beach.
On one of these road trips, we had a bit of a challenge. The trip had been uneventful, until we stopped to let Minnie, our one-eyed, thirteen year old chihuahua, use the bathroom at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. My husband needed to run in and use the restroom, so I took our tiny dog for a walk. Minnie and I came back to my vehicle for a treat and a drink. My husband joined us, so I handed him my keys and the dog’s leash and ran into the gas station to use the restroom. As I walked across the parking lot, my husband asked if I could drive for a while. When I asked for the keys, he let me know he had put them in the ignition. Ready to get back on the road, I walked to the driver’s door, but before I could open the door, for some reason he had slammed the passenger door from the outside. At the same time, our 8 pound ‘special needs’ pup who didn’t appreciate being left in the car, stepped on the armrest of the door, and locked us out of the car. I looked at my husband and asked him, ”Are you sure you put the keys in the ignition?” He assured me he did. I then had to make sure he understood the car was locked, and Minnie was in the car. She might be a bright dog, but seriously, can you imagine trying to tell the tiny ‘pirate dog’ how to unlock the doors? It was a game to her, and the more I tried to talk to her, the more excited she became. The poor pup soon was out of control as she run from window to window, back and forth, faster and faster, trying to get to her people.
After checking all the doors, trying to get her to put her paw on the unlock button on the armrest, we let the reality of what had happened set in, we began to trying and figure out WHAT to do next. The second set of keys were over two hours away (one way), who could bring us a key, and who knows how long it would have taken a locksmith to get to us. All the sudden we both looked at each other and blurted out ‘OnStar!’ We had owned the GMC SUV for several years, but never used any of their services. My husband pulled out his phone and looked up OnStar. As he struggled to find the OnStar number, he looked at me and fussed, ‘Don’t EVER give me your keys again!’ I couldn’t help but laugh, but that didn’t make him feel any better. In the meantime, our old little chihuahua continued to sprint, jump, trip, and hop from window to window, struggling to get across the center console.
He got on the phone with the nicest person with OnStar, after answering a ton of questions for security reasons, only five minutes later the door locks clicked, and I was able to get in the Acadia and calm down the half blind crazy chihuahua.
We got back on the road, my husband laid back to rest, and our little Minnie laid down for a well-deserved nap. As I drove down the road, I reflected on our thirty-minute delay. It brought to mind how we are so blessed. We didn’t know we had this amazing gift that freed our little dog. This ‘gift’ didn’t cost us a dime. It was there for us to use at any time, all we had to do was ask. In the same way, each of us have a gift of freedom waiting for all of us. All we have to do is ask Jesus. He sets us free from all the things this world weighs us down, things that enslave us… like not forgiving others, or being angry, or the things that hurt us. I love the way Paul puts it in The Passion Translation:
“Let me be clear, the Anointed One has set us free-not partially, but completely and wonderfully free! We must always cherish this truth and stubbornly refuse to go back into the bondage of the past.” Galatians 5:1