You can remember THAT from 26 years ago?
All three of those are so minor I’d forget about them in a week, and the fact that all three happened on the same day I’d easily forget in a month.
Hope nothing serious ever happens to you, but then I must have a really hard life.
I remember patterns in my life. Until that day, I hadn’t much thought about the “Pattern of Three,” but from then on, I felt as if I had been given a “message” of sorts.
If two things (good or bad) happen within a 24-hour period, I need to pay attention to the second one, as it may be the pattern that saves my life. (It HAS happened, but I’m not willing to discuss it today.)
Sometimes, one has to be alert to the forces that control us. We can’t stop the blinker arm from breaking if it has been subjected to desert heat, but if it breaks, we need to be aware that there may be a reason why we cannot use it that day.
To me, it was, “What the...?” And then I headed into the pharmacy. Was I really supposed to go there?
No. Why? I don’t know.
But I listen to things that most people don’t. Years before, we lived in Olympia, WA, while Igor was in Saudi Arabia. We purchased a lot at Ocean Shores Outdoor Recreation Club. We had a 19’ trailer there, and spent every weekend we could out there. (The two kids and I.)
One Sunday, as we were driving back to Oly in drizzle, following a tanker truck and one car, my son said he needed to stop at a service station. I was (am) a believer in the “third time’s a charm” so I said, “OK,” and kept driving.
A few minutes later, still following the tanker and the car, he told me again that he had to go. Again, I said, “OK,” and kept driving through Aberdeen.
The third time, however, I pulled into a service station and let him use the restroom. I eased back into traffic in the pouring rain, following the road around the town, and as we headed for the road through “the rain forest,” we had to slow down for an accident.
The tanker truck and car we had been following for 16 miles or more had met up across the highway on the way out of Aberdeen. The car we had been behind was under the tanker and the car that had been behind us was an accent to them both.
Had I not stopped to let my son relieve himself, there is no doubt in my mind that I would not be here today to tell of it.
As for having “a really hard life,” look for patterns in your past and see if they may fit in your future. God has subtle ways of telling us it is not our time, or that we have overlooked something, or that we really need to pay attention.
I never scoff at anything that might be, in reality, a means of saving myself. Even “Patterns of Three.” “Patterns” are there for a reason.