Some friends and I had spent the weekend at Cape Cod. We were on Interstate, headed home to New Hampshire, so busy chatting that Leonard sailed right past our exit. "Leonard never misses an exit!" his wife declared when we noticed his mistake, and we ribbed him unmercifully.

We finally reached the next exit and got back on the highway we were supposed to be on, only to hit a massive traffic jam. After endless miles of inching along, we finally reached the cause, a large pileup. We did some figuring and realized, if Leonard had not missed the exit, we would have been right at that point when the accident happened, probably in the middle of it. I was still young enough to feel very sensitive and spiritual, and I felt a vibrant wave of thanksgiving, but after we got home the incident was shoved to the back of my mind.

A few months later, I got my first car. As I began to deal with idiot drivers and too-long red lights, a strange thing happened. My teen-age impatience would always be checked by the thought, "Where would I be now if this hadn't happened?" If I missed a green light, I'd wonder if two blocks down somebody would have barreled into an intersection just when I reached that point. If I was stuck behind a driver I felt was driving way too slow for the road conditions, I'd wonder if being stuck behind him was preventing me from misjudging and driving too fast for the conditions.

These thoughts spilled over into other aspects of my life, and I began to look on every annoyance as having a purpose, even if I had no idea what it was. Over the years this attitude prevented a lot of stress, and probably a few ulcers as well.

When I mentioned the incident to my friends years later, they didn't remember it at all. I guess God is in different details for different people.