My all-time favorite Divine Providence story is the one my mother told me about her mother, my grandmother.

My grandmother, when she was a young, new driver, was the first in line waiting for the light to turn green when she heard the banging of drums outside her window.  Some poor person was banging on drums to attract attention for money, but the grungy look of the man and the pounding noise distracted my grandmother, and she was busy pondering whether it would insult or hurt the man’s feelings if she rolled up her window.  While she was worrying and thinking, the light turned green.  My distracted grandmother did not pull out right away…  and a truck barreling through the red light in the other direction missed her by a hair…

Needless to say, I still get the goose bumps thinking about what might have happened to my grandmother.

But – not every story of Divine Providence is a life changing event. I have my very own story, and while it wasn’t as momentous, it had a massive impact on me.

I was in class concentrating on my work when the room’s phone rang. It was a message to tell me that I shouldn’t go on the bus at the end of the day.   I looked up, agreed, but then promptly forgot.  When the dismissal bell rang, I got onto the bus, not noticing that my sisters weren’t on it. (I sit in the back, and they sit in the front.)   I only remembered the message when I got off the bus, but my sisters didn’t.   I crossed the road to our neighbors, hoping someone would let me use the phone to call my mother. Unfortunately, no one was home.  I was out on their lawn for about 5 minutes, worrying. Then Mrs. S’s car pulled in. “What are you doing here,” she said.  She got out, unlocked the house’s door and let me in. After I told her what happened, she  told me that she hadn’t planned on coming back from shopping, but she had had a vague sense that she had forgotten something.  Her checkbook, maybe?

It turned out that she hadn’t forgotten anything at all, but there I was, on the lawn, waiting for someone to come home.  After calling my mother to see where she was, Mrs. S drove me to the school where a group of people were laughing and chatting while they prepared for a Melava Malka. I joined in and it was really fun, believe it or not.  My mother had to watch my sisters, and she would not have been able to come and get me!

I almost missed out on a chance to do a Mitzvah and have fun at the same time.   I felt like even with the million and one (or more) amazingly important things that Hashem does every minute of every day, He took care of making sure that I would be able to be there.