www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/fourth-floor-last-door?lang=engOnce upon a time, in the very real life of Teresa Noel Hislop, there was a maroon-colored, Toyota van (dubbed by her daughters “Angel Mountain Hunter”) with a very heavy driver’s side door that seemed to fling itself open. The said door’s balance was such that it swung out when opened, gaining speed as the swing gained arc. Because the door was heavy (mass) and the swing quick (velocity), the door’s momentum was significant. (p = mv, where p is momentum, m is mass in kg and v is velocity in m/s.) And a swinging van door with significant momentum can cause a significant amount of damage.
A decade or so ago I was in that maroon-colored van when I parked next to a nice person in a nice car at a nice restaurant. Knowing the door tended to swing fast and hard, I opened it carefully. On this un-fortuitous occasion, the wind grabbed the door and wrenched the handle from my grasp. I watched in horror and gasped in dismay as the door’s momentum, now wind aided, carried my van’s door into the door of my-as-yet-unknown parking lot neighbor.
Thunk and clunk.
My door made its mark on their door which began a series of events that caused my insurance rates to increase. [It was classified as an accident—which it was as I certainly did not do it on purpose—so I lost my “accident free” status and had to pay full price for insurance for the next three years.]
Toyota must have savvy engineers, a great customer feedback system, or good luck (or a combination of the three) because our next two Toyota vans have not had the monumental-momentum driver’s side door issue that challenged Angel Mountain Hunter. Their driver’s side door opens docily. After a couple years of feeling grateful for the design alteration every time I opened the van door, the change’s impact faded and I largely forgot the issue.
Until a few weeks ago when I borrowed the Range Rover for a few weeks….. The Rover’s front door also swings open fast and hard. Due to my previous experience, I recognized the situation—and relived the scenario. I also re-adopted my “be-oh-so-careful-when-opening-the-door” technique.
They say that history is destined to repeat itself….
I parked the Range Rover next to a nice person in a nice car at our nice, new library in Roy. Knowing the door tended to swing fast and hard, I opened it carefully. Once again, the wind grabbed the door and wrenched it from my grasp. I watched in horror and gasped in dismay as the door’s momentum, now wind aided, carried the Rover’s door toward my as-yet-unknown parking lot neighbor’s car. And stood in awe as the door swung…and missed! There was less than 1 mm between the Rover door and the car next door. 1 mm. [1 mm is 1/10 of a cm and 1 cm = about 2.5 inches; 1 mm = .039 inches] But 1 mm was enough. The doors, both of them, remained unscathed.
Coincidence? No. Was it blind luck that I happened to pull into that parking lot with just enough room on the driver’s side to avoid a door-to-door impact? No. Not coincidence. Not blind luck. Certainly NOT driving skill on my part. It was love. All-knowing, all-seeing, all-encompassing love. God’s love. For me.
I know God loves me. He tells me in little ways all the time. He told me when He sent Ogden’s Parks Director to give me a ride to the repair shop when my bike got a flat tire. He told me when He directed to me to put daffodils in my daughter’s school locker, an action that was much more significant than I realized at the time. He told me when He whispered to me to check the pig’s automatic waterer just before leaving for a week in July. [It had been turned off; they’d have died.] He told me this week when the Animal Control Officer put Zorro back into our dog kennel instead of impounding him when he escaped and aggressively approached a neighboring meter reader. He told me when He sent a General Conference message that sent me to the Bishop who sent me home with a peaceful heart. He told me when He sent whales and did not send rain on our Oregon Coast field trip—a true miracle if ever there was one!
God loves me. He tells me so intimately and frequently. And I know, because His messages are so personal, so tailor-made to me, that He has my back. When the big challenges come—when my heart aches, when fear threatens, when life seems dark, obstacles overwhelming and the path obscured, when prayers for change seem unanswered—I trust Him. I know that things will work out because I know He loves me and I trust His love.
In the words of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf I trust “that God loves us perfectly, that everything He does—every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds—is for our eternal happiness….. though we may not understand why certain things happen or why certain prayers go unanswered, we can know that in the end everything will make sense. ‘All things [will] work together for good to them that love God.’.....All will be made right….. All will be well.........We can be certain that answers will come, and we may be confident that we will not only be content with the answers but we will also be overwhelmed by the grace, mercy, generosity, and love of our Heavenly Father for us, His children.”
And that, my friends, is the parable of the Range Rover.
[President Uchtdorf's address: www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/fourth-floor-last-door?lang=eng]
A decade or so ago I was in that maroon-colored van when I parked next to a nice person in a nice car at a nice restaurant. Knowing the door tended to swing fast and hard, I opened it carefully. On this un-fortuitous occasion, the wind grabbed the door and wrenched the handle from my grasp. I watched in horror and gasped in dismay as the door’s momentum, now wind aided, carried my van’s door into the door of my-as-yet-unknown parking lot neighbor.
Thunk and clunk.
My door made its mark on their door which began a series of events that caused my insurance rates to increase. [It was classified as an accident—which it was as I certainly did not do it on purpose—so I lost my “accident free” status and had to pay full price for insurance for the next three years.]
Toyota must have savvy engineers, a great customer feedback system, or good luck (or a combination of the three) because our next two Toyota vans have not had the monumental-momentum driver’s side door issue that challenged Angel Mountain Hunter. Their driver’s side door opens docily. After a couple years of feeling grateful for the design alteration every time I opened the van door, the change’s impact faded and I largely forgot the issue.
Until a few weeks ago when I borrowed the Range Rover for a few weeks….. The Rover’s front door also swings open fast and hard. Due to my previous experience, I recognized the situation—and relived the scenario. I also re-adopted my “be-oh-so-careful-when-opening-the-door” technique.
They say that history is destined to repeat itself….
I parked the Range Rover next to a nice person in a nice car at our nice, new library in Roy. Knowing the door tended to swing fast and hard, I opened it carefully. Once again, the wind grabbed the door and wrenched it from my grasp. I watched in horror and gasped in dismay as the door’s momentum, now wind aided, carried the Rover’s door toward my as-yet-unknown parking lot neighbor’s car. And stood in awe as the door swung…and missed! There was less than 1 mm between the Rover door and the car next door. 1 mm. [1 mm is 1/10 of a cm and 1 cm = about 2.5 inches; 1 mm = .039 inches] But 1 mm was enough. The doors, both of them, remained unscathed.
Coincidence? No. Was it blind luck that I happened to pull into that parking lot with just enough room on the driver’s side to avoid a door-to-door impact? No. Not coincidence. Not blind luck. Certainly NOT driving skill on my part. It was love. All-knowing, all-seeing, all-encompassing love. God’s love. For me.
I know God loves me. He tells me in little ways all the time. He told me when He sent Ogden’s Parks Director to give me a ride to the repair shop when my bike got a flat tire. He told me when He directed to me to put daffodils in my daughter’s school locker, an action that was much more significant than I realized at the time. He told me when He whispered to me to check the pig’s automatic waterer just before leaving for a week in July. [It had been turned off; they’d have died.] He told me this week when the Animal Control Officer put Zorro back into our dog kennel instead of impounding him when he escaped and aggressively approached a neighboring meter reader. He told me when He sent a General Conference message that sent me to the Bishop who sent me home with a peaceful heart. He told me when He sent whales and did not send rain on our Oregon Coast field trip—a true miracle if ever there was one!
God loves me. He tells me so intimately and frequently. And I know, because His messages are so personal, so tailor-made to me, that He has my back. When the big challenges come—when my heart aches, when fear threatens, when life seems dark, obstacles overwhelming and the path obscured, when prayers for change seem unanswered—I trust Him. I know that things will work out because I know He loves me and I trust His love.
In the words of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf I trust “that God loves us perfectly, that everything He does—every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds—is for our eternal happiness….. though we may not understand why certain things happen or why certain prayers go unanswered, we can know that in the end everything will make sense. ‘All things [will] work together for good to them that love God.’.....All will be made right….. All will be well.........We can be certain that answers will come, and we may be confident that we will not only be content with the answers but we will also be overwhelmed by the grace, mercy, generosity, and love of our Heavenly Father for us, His children.”
And that, my friends, is the parable of the Range Rover.
[President Uchtdorf's address: www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/fourth-floor-last-door?lang=eng]
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