Snow angels
By TIM KLIEWER
Trinity Mennonite Church
After the sleet, ice, and snowstorm of last week that so wonderfully blessed us with desperately needed moisture, I was wondering how I would maneuver on the ice with my pickup. Pickups are notorious for spinning out because the back is so light if there is no load on it.
I discovered I had excellent traction and didn't know why until I melted the snow and ice in our rain gauge and discovered exactly two inches of moisture had accumulated in our back yard. The ice and snow that accumulated in the back of my pickup was the same.
That's when I got out my tape measure and discovered that my pickup bed is five feet wide and eight feet long. Forty square feet of two inches of moisture comes to 6 2/3 cubic feet of water. Water weighs 62.4 pounds per cubic foot, so I had over 400 pounds of weight in the back of my pickup, which gave me the stability I needed on icy roads.
I thank God for the snow angel that protected me while driving on icy roads.
That reminds me of a snow angel/pickup story of several years ago.
Pastor Don Whitney and his wife had an unusual experience on their wedding night: "We were married in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on the night of Jan. 8. The snow began to fall in the Ozarks just as we left the church, but we had no idea at the time that we were driving into the teeth of an 18-inch snowfall, the worst winter storm in Arkansas history.
"Road conditions rapidly deteriorated as we drove west across the Oklahoma border where the snow had been drifting longer. Not only did the blowing snow blind our vision; the blizzard obliterated the tracks of the few other travelers who had preceded us on the highway.
"For long stretches at a time, the only way to determine that we were actually on the road was for me to stick my head out the window into the below-zero wind chill and stay to the right of the dead weeds in the ditch whose tops could still barely be seen sticking out above the snow. We feared for our lives.
"Our situation became so desperate that finally we agreed to stop at the next house we passed and ask if we could stay, even though it meant not only spending our first night together in a small country house with complete strangers, but probably most of our honeymoon as well.
"Heading toward a resort hotel on a secluded lake in northeastern Oklahoma, however, we were traveling relatively minor two-lane roads and in rural areas. It seemed as though we'd never drive by a house. Finally, we did, but no one was home! The same thing was true at the next house. We had no choice but to keep moving.
"We went for miles without seeing another vehicle, and we were not at all sure we could find our way on those back roads. But about 1:30 a.m., headlights appeared out of the snow in our rearview mirror. To our surprise, the vehicle pulled out to pass in spite of the treacherous conditions.
"An old pickup moved around us and then settled comfortably in front of us at our same rate of speed. Comforted by his company, we decided to follow in the ruts made by his tires regardless of where he went.
"For half an hour the truck turned this way and that onto desolate country back roads, plowing a path for us through the fierce storm. Suddenly the old truck slowed to a stop in front of an arch across the road. From his headlights we could read on the arch the name of our resort. He had led us to the very spot we had been trying to reach!
Then the pickup turned around, drove past us and out of sight into the blizzard.
"Why, of all places, did the driver of the truck head for such a remote location on such a horrible night? And why, after traveling for so long in the storm to get there, would he turn around at that point? Was it an angel that guided us safely out of danger and escorted us exactly where we needed to go?
"We could never prove to you that it was, but you could never convince us that it wasn't." [SBC Life, Sum 1993. Page 10.]
