We were
being assessed a huge fine. When you
factor in the penalty for not paying right away, the total came to $6.90. Can you believe it? Seven bucks for a 60 cent toll? And we weren’t even there to enjoy the thrill
of the moment. It seems they thought our
truck blew through an EZ Tag location somewhere on a road in Houston called
Grand Parkway. I remember seeing a sign
leading there one time, but I personally have never been on that one. I did recognize a cross street they
mentioned, though. This horrible
infraction occurred near the Spencer/something exit. I assumed that meant somewhere in the
Pasadena area, but we haven’t been over there since I was Nathan’s basketball
coach. They included a very grainy
picture of the back left corner of a vehicle that appeared to be towing
something. We don’t even have a trailer
hitch. We got out a magnifying glass to
see if the license plate really matched ours.
I gotta say, it looked like it could be ours, but the picture was so
blurry I really couldn’t tell.
Now,
Nathan has been using the truck for a while now, so I decided to give him a
call to see if he knew anything about it.
Oh, and speaking of that, congrats to Nathan. He was blessed in much the
same way we were with our old faithful blue truck. A co-worker gave him a truck. He said it had been given to his Dad when he
needed it. His Dad in turn gave it to
him when he needed it. And now he was
giving it to Nathan because he needed it.
He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and only asked that he do the same
for someone when the time came. It’s
great to see God at work in people’s lives.
Well, sure
enough, Nathan had no idea. We just don’t
normally take the truck off the island unless Nathan had to go to work up there
or we were picking up something specific, like that piano last week. So I grabbed the phone and made the
call. It only took a six minute wait
time to finally get connected with someone.
Terrible quality on their elevator music. I explained the situation to the guy on the
phone and asked for whatever help he could give me so I could better understand
the whopping violation they had applied to my non-existing account. After reading the entire page to me (I guess I
sounded like an old geezer who couldn’t make out the words on the page for
myself. But I let him drone on), he
finally ended with “and that’s what the charges are for. Is there anything else I can help you with?” I took a deep breath and let it out before I began. “There sure is. That’s not my truck. It was never there. And we don’t even have a trailer hitch.” I thought he would have been used to hearing
things like that in his line of work, but he really seemed taken aback by my
suggestion that his little picture and his computer might actually have made a
blunder. He apparently stared at his
copy for a few minutes, then put me back on hold with the horrible music so he
could review the photo more closely.
After
three or four minutes he returned, with an entirely new outlook on life. “We were unable to verify this fine by the photo
taken. In fact, that picture doesn’t
even look like a GMC. It looks like a
Chevy.” Relieved, I helped him along, “And
it’s newer than ours, and it has a trailer hitch and is towing something.” He agreed with me on all counts and concluded
with “I’ll remove that fine right now from your account and you now have a zero
balance.” Ah, finer words were never
spoken. Well, that’s not actually
true. Plenty of finer words have been
spoken. But at least we were freed from
the stigma of a seven dollar debt hanging over our heads.
Ephesians
2:4-5 says, “But because of his great
love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we
were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.”
Father,
thank you being a righteous judge who offers mercy when we deserve the
worst. Oh, and thank you for blessing Nathan with a truck. Bless his benefactor as well. Amen.
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